The Links Return
by inuyasha 303
Summary: Hyrule is once again under attack. The hero is called upon, but Link finds that he can't take the new challenge with out the help of some old friends... and some new ones. For yaoi and non-yaoi fans
1. Prolog: The Spreading Storm

**Description**: Hyrule is once again under attack. The hero is called upon to save it, but Link finds that he can't take the new challenge without the help of some old friends... and some new ones.

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**The Legend of Zelda: The Links Return**

**Prolog**

**The Spreading Storm**

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The palace ground shook violently as the earth trembled beneath it. Lightning flashed overhead so bright, it illuminated every shadow across the castle grounds. Wind howled as it whipped through the trees and rubbed against the stonewalls. Inside the castle, pottery smashed to the ground and furniture toppled over. The men and women ran scared through the halls looking for protection; half of them convinced the end of the world had come.

In her chamber Zelda, the Princess of the prosperous kingdom of Hyrule, was frantic. She looked as innocent as any other girl, looking simply to be frightened by the events transpiring. However, her thoughts were turning with possibilities, strategies, and solutions. Someone or some_thing_ was attacking the castle. _Her _kingdom was in trouble and she didn't even know by what. The only thing she knew was that whatever it was emitted a dark and powerful aura. She could feel it all around her, coming in with the wind.

_'What is this great evil?'_ She wondered, risking her safety by standing near the window to again search for the source of the attack.

A banging on the door made her jump and she spun around startled. "Permission to enter!" Came the loud, urgent voice of her head knight through the wood.

The Princess composed herself, brushing down her hair, which had fallen out of place. That was no time for her to be panicking. As long as her father was still away the kingdom would look to her for strength and wisdom. She had to be able to face whatever they were dealing with. She hurried forward and open the door firmly, holding her head high, displaying confidence.

The much older man stood at attention. "Your orders Princess?" He asked.

Another quake rocked the castle and nearly knocked them both off their feet. The Knight reached forward to steady her. Not far from where they stood part of the ceiling collapsed.

'_The castle cant take much more of this...'_ She thought, standing up to her full height and squaring her shoulders, not at all bothered that she didn't even reach his chin.

"Get everyone out of here." She ordered, her voice strong despite her doubts. "Find someplace safe. I don't want anyone to get caught in this." A plan formed in her mind and she turned back to her desk. "Death Mountain! This storm came from the other direction; we'll be safe there." She pulled out a piece of paper a scrawled something down quickly, before noticing the other hadn't left. "Go! I'll catch up!"

He shook his head and barked her orders out the door to some one out of sight. "My duty is to protect you Princess. I will keep you safe." He crossed his arms as though daring her to make something of it. Even if she ordered him to go, he sure as hell wasn't moving.

She almost took the time to laugh at herself. Of course he wasn't going to leave her. She expected nothing less from her head knight.

"Then follow me to the tower." She told him. "I need to send a message. Make haste." She ran passed him towards the message tower. It was quite a sight to see the fully-grown man struggling to keep up with the light-footed princess. Damn full body armor.

Bird cheeped and squawked as they opened the tower door. Zelda motioned the knight to stay back while she approached the pleasant creatures. A gorgeous hawk stretched from his nap, the only one still clam in the tower despite the disturbance around them. He cocked his head at her as she approached him. The bird was her most trusted messenger and she had been the one to train him.

"Hurry..." She whispered to him gently, tying the note to his leg with one of her hair ribbons. "Deliver this to the Hero Link. You can find him. Fly fast." She held the bird out the window as the castle shook again. The hawk snapped proudly, raising his brown-feathered head and taking off into the dark stormy sky. Zelda turned and rushed back to her knight to escape the castle, saying a prayer as she went.

"May the goddesses guide your way."

...

"Epona!" Came a light cry across the field. Strands of bright orange hair shifted in the wind.

"Epona! Oh, where did you run off to now, you silly horse?" The young Malon putting her bucket of carrots on the fence and examining her fathers ranch. The thick grass shimmered like water as it waved, and she shook her head with a laugh. '_I'll bet she's off playing with Link again. I might as well just give her to him'._

She laughed again, speaking out loud. "That is: After he pries her from my cold, dead hands!"

The rumbling in the distance caught her attention and looked off towards the castle. The horizon was pitch black with storm clouds. A cold feeling ran up her spine and she shivered despite herself.

"What a nasty looking storm. I sure hope it doesn't spread over here..." She took her bucket and hurried to the house.

Not far from the ranch, a young Hylian man was stretched out on a hill, fast asleep. The soft breeze shifted his yellow blond hair and the tall grass brushed against his pointed ears, making them twitch. The young adult was dressed in a traditional green tunic and hat that made him near invisible to anyone not looking for him, among the blades of green. Not far to his left was a long sword and shield. Neither had seen much use in a while. A time of peace had finally reached Hyrule. After years of eradication, they seemed to have seen the last of those foul beasts that had been left from the reign of the Wind Sorcerer Vaati. The youth was, of course, the Hero who had saved the kingdom in the first place: The left-handed Hero Link.

A hawk's cry pierced the air, awaking the young Hero with a start. Alarmed, Link sat straight up, his body tensing instantly as he searched out the cause of his disturbance. The hawk spotted him and circled overhead, crying again to catching his attention.

'_A messenger bird.'_ Link realized relaxing, leaning back on his hands. He had received enough of them during his adventures for one reason of another. Yawning, a little annoyed that his nap had been interrupted, Link held out his arm and whistled to it.

"Who are you looking for?" He called out.

With a final screech, the hawk descended gracefully landing on his out stretched arm. A small smirked tugged at Links lips. "Me huh?" He enjoyed getting mail. It could get lonely at times since he took his mission. He scratched the bird's chest gently in a way he knew the creature would like. "What training you must have to find me out here." He muttered, examining it over. "Actually you look familiar…" The symbol of the royal family hung from its neck and the pink ribbon caught his eye.

_'It's from the Princess!'_ He thought excitedly, quickly untied the letter. He took no notice of how fast the hawk took off after. He was thrilled to get word from his childhood friend, whom he hadn't seen in a long time.

However as he read the words scrawled out, he found himself becoming tense again. The text trembled. Something was happening at the castle. He made it about halfway through the explanation that they were under attack by some unseen force, when a violent wind ripped the letter out of his hands and blew it far away. His head snapped upward. The sky, that had been clear blue seconds earlier, had turned to gray, then black. Thick heavy rain began to fall, drenching him almost instantly.

_'I've got to get to the castle!'_ He thought springing to his feet. "Epona!" He called out, cupping his hands around his mouth to sound farther. His voice was lost under the thunder and for a moment he doubted his call had reached.

A flash in the distance and a neighing seconds later proved him wrong. The flash developed into a rich red-brown mare that came galloping towards him. She didn't slow her action even a second as she raced by and Link ran along her, mounting with practiced precession. With a soft tug on the rains he headed her back towards Lon Lon Ranch.

They arrived in recorded time. Epona snorted as he dismounted. She was ready to run. Link patted her nose softly. "Just give me a minute." He promised. Not bothering to knock he opened the door of the small ranch house and stepped inside. "Malon! Are you here?"

The girl came down the stairs. "Link? Did you bring Epona back?" She asked, looking out the window then back at him. "I'm worried about her in this type of weather..."

Link scratched his head kind of guiltily, earning him a suspicious look. "Well, I did bring her. But I need to borrow her again."

His good friend fumed instantly, her face matching the fury of her hair. "In this weather!" She snapped, pointing to the window in disbelief. The wind howled, the rain hitting the glass like arrows. It was insane for any living thing to be caught in such a storm.

"Didn't Nayru give you any sense! Look at you! You're soaked to the bone! And you want to take _my_ horse out in this, when she could be resting safe and dry in the barn?"

He didn't respond, but stood firm. She was right and he didn't want to risk Epona's health anymore than his own. But he was a knight and a Hero. When his Princess and his kingdom was in trouble, nothing was going to stand in his way.

Her expression faltered as she found herself face-to-face with his determination yet again. That same stubborn expression that he had given her when they first met, and convinced her to let them borrow her horses for their mission (1). The same way he'd gotten the mare from her for those past years he been running around Hyrule.

'_And I finally got her back too…'_ She sighed, looking back out the window. "This storm isn't natural is it?" She asked, and then waved her hand to dismiss both him and the question. "Never mind. Take her. Go. But remember! If she comes back with a _single_ scratch: I will skin you alive!"

Link nodded, not sure whether he should take her threat to heart or not. Quickly telling her goodbye, he dashed outside and mounted. "Ready to go?" Epona tossed her head and hoofed the ground eagerly. "Then let's go!"

...

The rain was coming down even harder, flooding the streets of Castle Town. The water and frequent earthquakes made it difficult to maintain a steady speed, but Epona was stubborn and so was her rider. The castle came in to view and Link leaned forward. Hooves pounded against the stone path. They rushed past the front gates without meeting any resistance. Not a soul seemed to be around, human or other wise. The letter had said they were under attack, but where was the enemy?

Castle Town was usually so lively, even during bad weather, so the emptiness of the place was disturbing. He didn't slow Epona until they reached the large front doors of the castle. "You did a good job, girl." He said gently as he dismounted. She was breathing heavily and he rubbed her nose tenderly. "Go find shelter." He told her, trusting Epona to understand his order and as she trotted off towards the stables he pushed open the familiar doors.

_'This place is in ruins...'_ Link observed sadly. The quakes were farther apart and less intense then they had been, but the damage was already done. The proud building had been all but demolished. Only the centre structure had survived.

'_This is going to take forever to repair…'_ Link thought calmly, as he made his way over piles of collapsed stone and under leaning pillars, careful not to disturbed them. _'The castle should have been able to stand against earthquakes. There must have been something else involved.'_

He worked through the undestroyed parts of the castle, checked all the rooms and was relived when he didn't find any bodies. "Zelda must have moved everyone." He muttered to himself, finding himself in a hall that was still mostly intact, a ceiling still in place to protect him from the rain. He took the break to ring out his hat and the bottom of his tunic. "The question is where did they go…?"

"Why don't you ask?" Came a voice behind him.

Link spun around drawing his sword in the process. He hadn't noticed someone was following him. A fierceness came to his expression as he readied for an attack, but at the same time he found himself filled with a calmness. Part of him recognized that strangely-echoed voice right away and the second his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light he almost dropped the weapon in surprise.

"Shadow!" He called.

The being that emerged out of the darkness, laughed smugly, stepping forward and holding out his arms in greeting. "What's up, Hero? Miss me?"

Link felt a huge smile come to his face and he almost gave in to the sudden urge to embrace his old friend. "Shadow! Goddesses! Of course I've missed you! It's been five years!" (2)

Shadow Link, as his name implied, was Link's shadow, straight out of the realm of darkness: the Dark World. Physically they looked almost identical, minus the coloring. Link found himself surprised by the change Shadow seemed to have gone through since he'd last seen him. Shadow had always been incredibly pale, since the suns light was deadly to him, but his skin had become even lighter. His eyes, which had been almost the same color as his, had darkened to a demonic black-blue. His hair had only had a ting of purple left, having become almost completely black as well. His tunic was a black mirror of the blonde's adult garb, instead of the simple one they had worn in their youth.

At the time of their original meeting Shadow had been aligned with evil. He had been the one to kidnap the Princess and wreak havoc on the citizens of Hyrule, setting monsters after his light-world counterparts and causing them no end of trouble. He had been tired of being ignored and having no choice but to follow Link without any acknowledgement.

Link remembered tricking the shadow into thinking he had switched sides in order to find out his weakness (3). That was when they had become friends. When Shadow found out about the trick, he'd tried to kill him by dropping him into a volcanic pit. Afterwards Shadow had been to one to destroy the Dark Mirror, the only thing keeping him and the evil Vaati in the world of Light.

Link sheathed his sword. It was only because of Shadow that they had been able to win and Shadow had given up his chance at life there to do so. After Shadows sacrifice, Link would trust him regardless.

"How did you get here now?" He asked. "I thought the Dark Mirror was destroyed."

Shadow's smirk only grew. "Oh it is, but that's an easy one. The wall between our worlds is so thin right now that I can slip through with ease. There is a disturbance between the powers of light and dark. It seems you have trouble brewing." He laughed. 'Good guy' or not, Shadow loved disarray.

Link felt his spirit sink drastically. A disturbance between light and dark? He thought back to the rein of Vaati and Ganondorf. Was the king of evil back for revenge? Was it a repeat of five years prier?

"Well, that's just perfect." Link said sarcastically. "I don't suppose you brought anymore good news?" Shadow laughed again, lightening his spirit. It really was great to see him. "So you know where the Princess is?"

Shadow nodded. "Of course. I've been hanging around here for a while now, waiting for the right opportunity to make my dramatic entrance." He strolled forward as the ground shook again. Link stumbled, but Shadow didn't have any difficulty. "Is there a problem, Hero?" He asked, still smirking. Link glared, but stopped when Shadow moved away.

"You're right, as usual. Zelda had everyone flee the castle. They went to Death Mountain, because this evil hasn't reached there. Yet. But before you go rushing off to save her, I think there's something you need to get. Follow me."

Link followed after him obediently. "So do you know what was attacking the castle? What could have done all of this so quickly?"

Shadow looked back. "Well, it's not Lord Vaati, if that's what you think. He's long gone. And it's not that Gerudo king, but I've seen it. I was to interested in returning here, so I didn't really take the time to get anything good. It's powerful though." He turned around a corner and Link looked around surprised as he suddenly realized where they were headed. "It's not like anything else you've faced, and I don't think you can deal with it alone."

Shadow pushed open the doors to the Four Swords sanctuary.

The rain was starting to lessen. There was a blanket of grass before them and a slightly worn path, leading to an inner garden, surrounded by stonewalls. The shrine had been added to keep the magic sword closer to home, incase of emergencies. It was amazing that the shrine had managed to survive. The Four Sword was a sword with the power to split its wielder into four separate entities. Link had welded the weapon once before. It had separated him into Green, Blue, Red and Vio, giving him enough strength to face the danger and save Hyrule. The sword that taught him how important teamwork was, but it had also made him realize how lonely traveling alone could be.

"Shadow... why are we here?" Link asked, his eyes landing on the golden pyramid surrounding the sword, with a sort of longing. "You know I can't draw the sword again. Zelda and the maidens sealed it up."

The dark being nodded, obviously not caring. "Well, it's too strong for you as you are now and isn't that what this thing is for? It's too strong for you, and it's too strong for the both of us together. The four of you however..."

Link shook his head. "Shadow, I can't-"

"Think about it!" He interrupted rudely, grabbing a hold of Links shoulder. "How did they seal it?"

Link huffed annoyed, having been present at the sealing. "They... they prayed to the goddesses. Why?"

Shadow ignored the question. "Exactly! So all you have to do is pray to unseal it!" He stepped around him with a grinned and pushed him closer to the sword. "You're a Hero. That has to count for something up there."

Link scowled, trying not to get his hopes up. "What are you talking about? There is no way that would work!"

Shadow pushed harder. "Well, look! You haven't even drawn the sword and your back to sounding like Blue. Let's get some more of optimistic Red out here: How are you going to know, unless you try."

Link gave him a look but after a minute he knelt in front of the sword. He was already soaked from the rain so it didn't really matter if he knelt in the wet grass. Shadow was right and he certainly wouldn't protest having his team again. He clasped his hands before him and sighed.

'_Nayru, Din, Farore…'_

"Say it out loud." Shadow encouraged teasingly.

Link glared again. "Knock it off." Shadow snickered eagerly.

Link closed his eyes. _'Goddesses…'_ He prayed. _'Hyrule is in danger again. I think I need the Four Sword. If I do then please, unseal it, so that I can save my kingdom.'_

He waited a moment, for an indication The Three had accepted his proposal. When he heard nothing, he opened one eye and saw no change. He felt the disappointment fill his chest. Of course. The time to use the Four Sword had passed. Whatever he was up against was something he would defeat himself.

"See?" He muttered, getting off the ground and pointlessly brushing off the dirt. "Nothing."

Shadow looked as disappointed as he felt. "Try again." He encouraged.

"There's no point." Link argued sharply. "It didn't work. I'll find a way to defeat it on my own. It won't-"

There was a sharp, clear snap as the seal cracked.

Two heads whipped towards the yellow glass-like structure. There was a crack that spread from the apex to about halfway down. There was another pop as the crack splintered, branching out all the way to the bottom. Then the glass shattered.

The Four Sword was free.

Shadow grinned making a smart-ass comment, which Link missed as he just stood there shocked. It wasn't until Shadow motioned him forward again, that the young Hero approached slowly and grabbed the hilt of the sword. Tossing a hesitant look at his companion he pulled the blade, still half expecting it not to work.

His hand easily pulled the sword from the stone.

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**Well there you go. This makes version three. This is likely that last revision that I'll make. I worry I made this version to dramatic. But it definitely LOOKS nicer. Tell me what ****_you_**** think!**

(1) This is important for the ending.

(2) I had originally started this story thinking that they had been 15 during Four Swords Plus, but after research I've decided that I actually think that they were 12. Either way, in this story they are supposed to be about 16 to 18. Vaguely stated: whatever you prefer.

(3) This sentence is based on my belief that Green is not the 'original' so when they returned to one, Link remembered doing everything as himself. So it should be… at least I think so.

**Comment please!**

**LoZ © Not me.**


	2. Chapter 1: Reunited

**AN**: I've decided to get rid of the separate rewrite and just edit the chapters. The original will remain up on my mediaminer account if someone really liked the original better. This was my first serious Zelda story that I wrote and I'd like to be able to finish it soon, but because of it's less popularity and these crappy early chapters, it's hard to get inspired.

This takes place after the manga, but has a couple of references to the game. Again, I don't plan on changing a lot, just making it better. Enjoy.

**Warnings****:** Shounen-ai, but **ONLY** during "in-between" chapters (It is **COMPLETELY **avoidable. The ".5 chapters" are not needed to understand the rest of the story. This story is designed for both yaoi fans and non-yaoi), new villain, new hero, a little swearing and a good bit of violence for the fighting scenes.

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**Chapter 1**

**Reunited**

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Bright light emitted from the sword, as Link raised it above his head. He didn't notice Shadow flee to the Dark World before the light could destroy him, or feel the wind that whipped around him, or the rain that continued to fall on his head. Instead, link felt the warm and strange sensation of pulling through his body; Like he was being pulled apart, but it didn't hurt.

After a moment the light dimmed and Shadow returned, hiding behind a pillar incase something had gone wrong. He peered around it and observed them. Instead of one Link, there were four and each of them wore a different colored tunic.

In order the tunics went green, blue, red and purple. Although the four of them looked almost identical, with the same facial structure as Link and Shadow, there was something about the look in each of their eyes and the way they held themselves that made it easy to tell them apart.

As they looked at each other, their faces filled with excitement.

It had worked!

However before they could begin their reunion, the castle grounds shook again, almost sending them to the grass.

The four Links looked up. "We should probably get out of here!" Shadow called out from his hiding place. He was pleased to see the four of them smile at him, like they were just as happy to see him as Link had been.

"Shadows right!" The Link wearing a lighter color green tunic said, quickly taking up his role as leader once again. "Let's get to the stables."

…

They made it through the castle remains in one piece. Most of the buildings main structure had crumpled. The stone towers had fallen and even the ground was splitting apart. It barely even resembled the place they had been raised in anymore.

However any remorse over the lose of their childhood home paled compared to how completely excited they were to finally be united!

The stables remained in tact. Luckily they so far from the castle that the quakes didn't knock it down. It was there that they took shelter.

"Does it plan to level this place?" Vio asked, calmly brushing the rubble off his purple tunic. His expression seemed almost bored, but is thoughts were racing with observations and plans.

Beside him was Red, visibly restraining himself. He was Links more tender side: optimistic, gentle and caring. He also had a tendency to be over emotional.

"Don't even think about it." Blue warned the boy under his breath. He glared right through the shorter males tactics. He had always had a shorter temper than the rest of them, but he was also the most protective. He seemed to have silently deemed himself Reds protector. At least, when he wasn't beating on the boy himself.

Finally, there was Green, trying to shake off some of the water that had soaked him. "Lets not get off to a bad start, Blue." He said with a laugh. . Despite his wearing green, and the fights he had over it with Blue, he wasn't 'the original Link'. He had claimed that he was in the beginning of their first adventure, but had realized over time that there were something's that Link had and hadn't cared about, that he just did or did not.

He was more focused and more of leader then the lone-wolf hero had ever been. Acting usually as the peacemaker, he kept the group on track and stopped them from killing each other, or themselves.

"You know how he is." He continued, finishing his statement. "Come on Red; go ahead."

Red turned to him with wide, water-filled eyes and a big smile.

"Green!" He exclaimed, jumping the leader with an insane bear hug that proved how misleading his childish behavior was. "I missed you guys so much!" The boy released him and latched onto their other three companions instead. "Its so good to be… to be… separate again!"

"Stop freaking me out!" Blue yelled, pushing him off. Having gotten used to Blues personality long ago, Red simply hugged him again. "Gah!"

Vio smirked. "We have been together this whole time, Red."

"Not the same thing." Red argued, finally letting Blue free and moving back to Green who didn't complain as much.

"Oh, I have to agree." Shadow said, throwing an arm around Vio's shoulders.

The blond grinned at him as well. He had been the part of Link to befriend Shadow originally. Pretending to the others that he had really turned to the dark side, Green had been the one to figure it out when Vio failed to kill him in a death match for Shadow's entertainment. Even if it had only started as a trick, the friendship they had developed was real.

Epona trotted over to them and Red hurried over to scratch her side lovingly. She snorted at her rider's sudden multiplication, but other wise seemed to accept them, nuzzling Reds cheek.

Green sighed. "We'll have to return her to Lon Lon Ranch. Malon will have a fit if we don't get her back." He turned to start out the open door to the ruins not too far off. "But first; Death Mountain. We need to find Princess Zelda. We have to make sure she and the people are alright."

The others nodded in agreement. "Alright." Blue said quickly. "But just one question: Who gets to ride?"

"Not you." Vio said immediately, crossing his arms. Even after so many years apart, they were so close that fighting just came naturally.

"Hey!" Blue snapped.

Reds hand flew up. "I wanna do it! Can I ride her?" Blue opened his mouth to protest, but Green physically separated them.

"She's not going to carry any of us." He declared, taking the fairest way out. "It wont take us that long to reach Death Mountain. We don't have time to go back to the ranch, and we can't leave her here. But no one is riding her. Understood?"

The others looked at each other, and then nodded reluctantly. "I suppose that means that we cant wait until the storm passes right?" Red asked, not looking forward to getting drenched again.

Lighting flashed across the sky as Shadow peered out the doorway himself. "This storm is unnatural. Made by the unbalance."

"Meaning it's not going to stop any time soon." Vio clarified. "We can't risk sitting around and missing our opportunity." Red nodded slowly with understanding.

They all looked at each other, and then set out.

…

**Goron Village: Dead Ahead.**

After almost 3 days of travel to the now abandoned village of Kakariko and a whole day more to get close to the top of the mountain the five Links were relieved to see the sign indicating their arrival.

"That doesn't sound very inviting..." Red said worriedly, reading the piece of wood.

"Oh don't be a pansy!" Blue snapped. After four days of travel his temper was even hotter than usual.

Traveling was something they were long used too. However the constant rainfall had followed then right up the outskirts of that province, before abruptly cutting off. Hunting had been difficult as well and they hadn't yet had a good chance to bathe or to get any decent sleep.

"And don't be stupid! Its not like we haven't been up here before!"

The outburst made Red shrink back into himself. Green almost stopped in his trek to glare back at his blue-clad clone. "Blue! Don't yell at Red! It's not his fault! Say you're sorry!"

Not one to follow orders, Blue turned his anger on Green. "Don't tell me what to do! I don't have to listen to you! I still think I should be the leader!" He continued up after him.

"I actually think they were getting along better last time." Vio said with a sighed, glancing over at Shadow. The sun was still out, but the pass they were in had enough shade to one side for him to be out with them.

His Dark World counterpart smirked. "It's probably because they miss their fights. Oh, but you know they wont admit it." Vio chuckled in agreement. They continued walking up the mountain, ignoring the other threes bickering. After a moment, Shadow looked over again.

"Hey Vio?"

Vio blinked up at the light, judging how much time they had left and how long it would take them to reach the top. "Yes?" He replied.

Shadow looked away uncomfortably. "About _that_ time... That whole 'trying to burn you at the stake' thing..."

Vio looked at him surprised. After Shadow came over to their side, Vio had thought that the other would want to forget about his time working for the enemy. He wouldn't blame Shadow for doing what he had. If he had found a traitor in Green, Red or Blue, he would have taken action. Not gone so far as to tie the person to a rock pillar and tossing them into a volcano, but…

"Don't worry about it, Shadow." He muttered looking back ahead.

Shadow looked over relived. "Then you forgive me?"

"Not a chance."

Shadows eyes widened with disappointment. Vio had been a close friend, his very first. Despite all that happened, he didn't want to lose that friendship.

Vio looked at him and smirked. "I'm joking, you idiot. I forgave you a long time ago."

Shadow blinked before grinning dangerously. "You're an ass!"

"Hey you guys!" Green called, getting their attention. "There's a Goron up ahead!"

"Brother!" The bolder-like man shouted, with a wave. The Gorons were a race of rock eaters that were indigenous to Death Mountain. A rather peaceful race that could survive insanely hot temperatures and provided weapons and machinery across Hyrule.

"Welcome! The Princess asked us to keep an eye out for you!" His voice was gravely, but warm. He greeted them all with strong pats that nearly knocked them over and corrected himself. "I mean… Brothers! Welcome! Come this way."

The Gorons size made him slow, but he was familiar with the terrain, so that it was the Links that had a hard time keeping up. "I'm surprised the Princess would bring everyone up here." Green said, looking around at the naturally unsafe volcano.

"Well I'm not." Shadow said calmly. "I told you. This is the only place left that hasn't been tainted by the new evil."

The Goron lead them inside and to a well lit cavern on the edge of the Goron dwelling area. They were offered food and rest, but only took the time to wash up before insisting on seeing the princess.

"Sister Zelda is in this room." Their Goron guide told them opening a curtain and lowing his voice to a whisper. "She is panicked, Brothers. Even in our best hot spring she refuses to relax."

Blue snorted, whispering as well as they snuck by. "Sounds like Zelda all right." The others nodded in agreement.

Princess Zelda knelt in the center of the large room, praying anxiously to the Goddesses. Having had no time to change before fleeing the castle, her formal dress had been worn by travel and faded from how rigorously the Gorons had washed it.

Most of her Knights were in the room with her, as well as one of her hand-maidens and a few people from her council. Links father, Zelda's Head Knight, was the first to notice them and stood up with a start.

"Link…?" He began, stopping short with confusion.

Shadow stepped back, fading into a dark corner. Red gave the man a big smile, while the other three gave a nervous kind of wave. "Hi Dad!"

The man blinked, before clearing his throat and straightening his spine. "Princess. The Heroes you summoned have arrived."

"Heroes?" She asked, finally opening her eyes. She spun around quickly and as soon as her gaze fell on them, they knelt where they were in respect.

"Princess." They greeted.

She was speechless as she observed each of them. The newer knights who hadn't been around 5 years prier whispered among themselves until she suddenly sprang to her feet, surprising everyone, her golden hair flying around her.

"What did you-!" She began, before the mountain shook, causing most of them to collapse to the dirt floor.

Vio steadied himself, looking around as some of the candles were knocked over, limiting their light. "An eruption?" He asked.

"No…" Shadow said, glaring at the ceiling, as if it was the source of their problems. "It's here."

Blue stood up and drew his sword, an eager grin on his face. "Perfect timing! I was just starting to itch for a fight!"

"You can't take that out now!" Vio yelled. The ground shook and knocked Blue over, the sword nearly stabbing the violet hero's hand in the process. Blue ignored the few choice curses he received in result.

Green scowled, looking around at the knights using the walls, trying to stay on their feet. "What are we supposed to do? We can't fight like this!"

There was a rumble overhead, almost like a deep chuckle then thunder.** "So these are the fearless and mighty Heroes that defeated Lord Ganon?" **

Waves of terror racked down everyone's spine at the voice that penetrated the walls and filled the room. It was loud, almost impossibly loud and yet managed to sound so quiet, like a whisper in their ear. There was that laugh again.

**"How pathetic…"**

Blue scowled getting to his feet again, although without his sword that time. "Oh yeah! Why don't you come down here and say that to my face, you coward!"

**"Fool!"** The voice laughed causing the ground to shake yet again. **"You do not have the power to overcome me. Heroes? You are barely even pawns." **The tremors became worse as a mighty wind blew and the remaining candles were extinguished. "**But I will let you bare witness to my powers." **

Zelda scream pain exploded from the darkness, followed quickly by similar sounds from each of the rooms occupants. The Links tried to reach her, but the shaking of the mountain prevented them from doing anything.

"Zelda!" Green yelled, feeling dirt begin to rain from the ceiling top of the cavern onto him.

"Link!" She screamed desperately. "I'm-" However something cut her off. In the next second, the earth grew still again and the room eerily silent.

"Zelda?" Green called softly.

The name echoed through the room unanswered.

**"This is my world now." **The wicked voice claimed, before fading out as well.

The five held their breath, listening for any indication of another presence, but there was none.

Vio hurried to the wall and searched around for a candle to light. "Don't bother." Shadow told him, knowing what he would only be disappointed once he did. Vio ignored him, lighting the thing anyway.

The room was vacant of anyone beside themselves. "Zelda... Dad..." Red called in disbelief, secretly hoping they would return upon being called. "Where- Where did they go?" He asked, turning to Green with fear in his eyes.

Green couldn't believe it either. He just stood there until Vio answered. "I believe our new enemy took them..." He said angrily, the candle shaking in his hand. Shadow nodded in agreement. "... And we let it." Blue swore colorfully, hitting the wall.

Green took a deep breath, trying to collect his thoughts. "Then… we just need to take them back!" He said, before storming out of the room.

The others followed him. "But how do we do that?" Red asked, looking around as they went. They passed no human or Goron, and it didn't take long to realize that everyone from the mountain was missing. The emptiness made him shiver and move closer to the others for comfort.

Shadow stopped. "I'll go to the Dark World and see if I can't get some more information on what we're dealing with. Maybe I can find out where he has put everyone."

"Good idea." Green approved, before the dark Link vanished. "In the mean time we're going to head to Lon Lon Ranch. We have to return Epona, He turned back to the hallway leading out. "and that will give us time to think of a plan."

…

Hyrule castle had been reduced to rubble.

The only parts to remain in tact were the buildings separated from the main building, which had taken very little damage despite the powerful earthquakes they hade suffered through, and the throne room. Had they not been distracted, the Links might have noticed it.

Although the throne room had been on the third floor, it had fallen to the ground undamaged. Not even a pebble from the upper levels had managed to land on the stone pathway and long red carpet. It was as though the remaining castle had been forced away as it had fallen. The rain itself had stopped and the untouched room remained as dry as it had started.

Only the larger of the two thrones remained and sitting upon it was a figure in a heavy black cloak. No part of the figure was visible, except for one aged and pale hand, the long fingers slowly turning a intricate pink chess piece.

Just above the howling wind, the strange and dark chuckle could be heard.

* * *

Eh, a little corny. I like it. You know, I really never focused on him/it enough. Again, this version is a lot better. Not great, but better. ...I like how the prolog is longer then chapter 1... Lol!

**Tell Me What You Think!**

LoZ © Not me.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I still don't own Zelda four swords.  
AN: This chapter is most likely to be incredibly short. Like I said before it's actually the end of the last chapter that I just cut off because I thought it was getting too long. I'll try to stretch it out better.

The entire trip to Lon Lon Ranch was early quite. They ran into absolutely no one. No other travelers, or merchants, or anyone. "I'm starting to think all of Hyrule is missing..." Vio muttered.

"Goddesses help us..." Green replied solemnly. "...we're going to need it..."

The rain, thankfully, had stopped when the people had disappeared. But heavy dark clouds continued to loom over head, depressing the party. As expected, Lon Lon Ranch was as abandoned as any where else. "Malon!" Green called. "Malon!" he opened the door to the main house, with out knocking. Chances were no one would answer any way. "Malon! It's me! If you here answer!"

"L-Link?" came a soft frightened voice from another room. "Link, is that you?" Malon came out slowly. Her eyes where red with tears, and her dress was covered in mud. "Thank the goddesses your here!" she ran to him, and grabbed his tunic, hiding her face against his chest. "I was so scared! A bunch of monsters came in and a-attacked us! It was horrible!"

The others looked at him, confused. He shrugged, unconcerned. Her strange behavior was understandable in the situation. "How did you escape? And where's your father?"

"I-I hid from them... but... they managed to grab Daddy!" she sniffed. "Now I'm all alone..."

Green patted her head weakly. Behind him Vio frowned. "Malon?" he inquired coolly.

She looked over. "Huh? Why... Who are you? Why are there four Links? Which... which ones the real one?" She asked stepping back. She looked almost scared.

Vio grabbed his sword hilt. "Malon... who is Epona?"

Blue scowled, annoyed that the purple swords master would ask such a trivial question. "What the hell Vio!? Why would you ask her who her fricken h-"

"Shut up." Green snapped at him catching on. He stepped away from the girl.

She smiled sweetly. "Don't be ridiculous Link... I know who Epona is... don't ask such silly questions..." she held out her hand towards him. "You believe me right?"

Green stepped back again, drawing his sword. "Answer the question." he said firmly.

Her mouth opened then snapped shut. All the sweetness vanished instantly. "For the love of Ganondorf." (1) Her hands went to her hips, quite ticked off. "And here I thought I was doing oh-so well... what gave me away?"

Red gasped in realization. "Oh goddesses!!! Your not Malon!?"

She sneered at him. "Duh. What are you stupid?"

Red sniffed, taken back. Blue twitched angrily. "Hey! No one calls Red stupid but me! Especially not some weak-ass, face stealing, loser!"

The Malon look alike literally burst into flames. "IMPUDENT! HOW DARE YOU INSAULT ME!?" a cold, fierce, wind blew in threw the open door and snuffed out the flame in the lantern. "THE FIVE OF YOU WILL WANDER MY KINGDOM ALONE AND MISSERABLE UNTIL YOU DIE!!!" The flaming Malon disappeared, leaving them in complete darkness.

Red blindly clung to Blues arm, terrified of getting separated from his friends. "I'm scared..."

The short-tempered swordsman tried to shake him of annoyed. "Let go! Jeez, don't be such a baby. I'm strong enough to take on this joker."

"As long as we stay together, we should be ok..." Vio said thoughtfully. Where they strong enough to take him out yet?

"HAHAHAHA!!!" came the evil voice, once again over head. "IF THAT'S HOW YOU FEEL I HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SEPERATE YOU!!!"

Red held tighter to Blues arm. "Not again!"

"Quick! Outside!" (2) Green ordered. They ran outside, their eyes beginning to adjust to the darkness. The cloud rumbles as if with laughter. "Damn it. Any ideas Vio?"

"I'll tell you when I come up with one." He answered, deep in thought. "We don't even know who our opponent is!"

The ground shook. "SAY GOODBYE TO EACH OTHER FOREVER!!!"

Wind started to whip around them. They moved closer to each other, still trying to figure out a way to escape. Red closed his eyes tight against tears that threatened to fall. "Goddess help us!" He cried.

Suddenly a beam of light shot down from the sky, to the ground in front of them. The wind ceased blowing. "Hero..." came a mystical voice from the light. "...I have heard your plea..." they all looked at Red, who smiled, and scratched his head sheepishly. "...I will lend you the power of light..."

The light brightened considerably, forcing them to cover their eyes. The four Links gasped as the felt the familiar sensation of splitting, like when they pulled out the four swords. It ended quickly, and the beam of light dimmed, enough for them to look again.

Standing in the center of the beam, was a kid. He was about their height, with pure white hair, under a white hat that looked like theirs. He also wore a white tunic like theirs, white shirt, pants (3) and boots. With deliberate slowness, he drew his sword, identical to theirs but in white, and held it over his head, pointing to the sky. "By the power of the goddess Farore, I banish the darkness!" A beam of brighter light shot from his sword (another beam...?), and the clouds above them disappeared, leaving a bright sunny sky.

Red smiled widely at the stranger, highly impressed. "Wow! That was amazing! How did you do that?"

"I have a better question..." Vio said suspiciously, stepping towards him. "...who are you?"

"...I'm... I guess you could call me..." He turned around to face them. "...Shining Link."

Weee!!! Shinning Link makes his bright, beaming, appearance! Though he's not in the game, I've seen many pictures of him all over the place, and I wanted to include him. Besides it adds a character whose personality is completely up to me. I don't think Nintendo owns him, because he's not in any of the games, but he is another form of Link so... well either way he's not mine.

(1) This just sounded cool; I don't know if an evil guy would say that, because Ganon would be a rival in conquering Hyrule, but whatever.

(2) Not that it would make a difference, Green was just trying to save Malons house from being destroyed.

(3) Are they pants? Or are they like leggings, of something? I don't know... T_T

please comment! Comments make writers happy! I need at least one comment before I put up another chapter!


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Its so annoying to have to state at the beginning of every story that I DON'T OWN THEM... no matter how much I wish I did... *sniff*  
AN: Not much to say... enjoy...

A soft, gentle wind blew threw LonLon Ranch, brushing past four half-stunned Links. The newly exposed sun, glared down at them. The only noises to by heard was the sounds of birds chirping, and horse's neighed confused at the strange weather.

The new Link watched them patiently. His white, pupil-less eyes (1) were hard, and serious. He sheathed his sword, moving gracefully. Blue, of course, was the first to speak. "Just what we needed... another Link."

"Oh shut up." Green snapped, though glad he didn't have to beak the silence. With that out of the way, he walked over to Shining Link and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Green, that's Red, Blue, and Vio."

He nodded stiffly, and shook his hand. "Hello."

Red walked over, and smiled warmly. "You're going to join our team? Neat! How ever... calling you Shining would be weird. You need a nickname!" He looked at the sky. "You came from up there so... how about Spirit!?"

Green rubbed his head. "Eh-he, sorry about that. Red chose all our names so-"

"Fair enough." he interrupted. "I will go by that name then."

Red beamed happily. "Um... ok." Green said, then looked around. "Unless some one thinks we should stay here, I say we get going. Any ideas?"

They were quiet for a moment then Red raised his hand. "What if we just want all over, and Spirit could do that cool light thing and we could light up Hyrule again."

"Umm... can you do that?" Green asked Spirit. He nodded. "Ok then. That's the plan."

................................................................

"Hey! Hey... guys!!!" The Links stopped. They'd only been walking for a few minutes, so it was still bright, when they heard yelling from the trees. "Grrrrr! Vio!"

"It's Shadow!" The purple Link realized.

Shadow crossed his arms as they approached. He was leaning, in the shade, against a tree. "It's about time. What happened? It was dark when I left..." He noticed Spirit, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "...and who is that?"

They quickly explained what happened. "Did you learn anything in the Dark world? Vio asked as soon as they were done.

"A bit. The name of our enemy is Malachi." Blue snickered. "This is the first time he's ever come to power, and he's taken all of Hyrule and moved them some where, but I can't find out where." He looked disappointed at his lack of information.

"That's ok." Vio insisted. "It's more than we knew before."

"All right. I'll meet up with you guys later." Shadow said.

"Why?" Red asked.

"I can't go in to the light remember?" He reached out of the shade, then jerked his hand back like it burned. "Nope... still cant."

"Oh sorry..." he apologized.

"Eh? Naw, don't worry about it." he rubbed the shorter boys hair affectionately (2). "See ya'll later." he disappeared.

Spirit looked at the spot that Shadow had been standing emotionlessly. "Are you certain it's a good idea to trust a person like that? He is a shadow after all."

Vio glared. "We trust Shadow completely. He helped us defeat Gufuu, by breaking the mirror."

"...I apologize." The light Link muttered turning away. "I was not aware of that."

Green, Red and Blue exchanged looks. "Um... Lets get moving then." Green said, taking the lead again.

"Fine with me." Vio said, and they all followed with Red and Blue in back.

"Hey." Red whispered to Blue. "Spirit made Vio mad."

"Yeah... and he's normally so calm... haha."

"Blue!"

"What!? It's funny! Speaking of funny what kind of name is Malachi?"

"I like that name."

"You would."

"???"

"Oh never mind."

"Would you two stop whispering back there?" Green called from the front.

"Sorry." Red answered.

"We'll whisper all we want!" Blue snapped.

"Blue!"

(A long boring, uninteresting conversation later.)

They arrived at a large temple. The sky was once again dark with storm clouds. "So this must be the first dungeon, right?" He looked at the old abandoned stone building with interest. "Doesn't look like anyone's been in here in years."

"Probably centuries!" Red exclaimed in agreement. "But couldn't Spirit just do his light thing out here, and we could just skip this dungeon?" He smiled hopefully.

All heads turned to Spirit. He blinked, surprised by the sudden attention, then drew his sword and held it up. "...No... There is too much evil in this area, for me to summon the light."

Blue grinned and punched his hand eagerly. "Great. Let's go in and kick some ass!"

Green stepped forward and pushed against the large wooden door. It opened with a groan. The inside of the room was pitch black. "Hey Spirit. Come here a second." He obeyed. "You go first."

Spirit stepped inside, and because of the strange fact that he was glow-in-the-dark, they could see better. They stepped inside the square, empty, door less room. "What the hell!?" Blue yelled.

"Che. Must you be so loud?" Shadow asked from the windowsill he was sitting on. "You've got to find the trigger..." he hopped down. "And would you tell your friend to dim the light?"

"Shadow!" Red cheered.

He laughed. "Ya'll are very loud." he stepped towards them, staying out of the circle of light Spirit cased (Is that a word?). "What took ya? I've been waiting for hours."

"Sorry." Green said, grinning. "Blue and Red held us up."

"Hey!"

Vio looked around, then approached a raised tile, and stepped on it. A door opened. "Found it."

"Good job Vio." Green said. "Let's go."

Jeez... this one is short too... hahahaha *nervous laugh* comment anyway please!!!!

(1)Ya know how all the Links have slightly different eyes? Well it's like that. This idea kind of reminds me of Neji Hyugga... from Naruto... ya know with the whole bakugan thing and... Never mind...  
(2)Not a romantic type thing. Purely nice older brother type thing. Not a yaoi reference, but if you want to think about it that way be my guest.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda... but I do own this story... mine!  
AN: AH! My notebook is such a mess! I write my story's in a notebook first and then type them (I have to write this because, it surprised me to learn, some people just type there story's. I don't get it and I can't do it. My stories are never as good the first time around.), and I keep stopping in the middle of chapters to write my other stories, or some one-shot... My OCD can't handle the unorganizedness!!! Oh this chapter will be incredibly long... unless I split it in half.

The temple was incredibly difficult. Never had they had to solve so many puzzles, and fight of so many enemies. Even Shadows knowledge of the dungeon was of little help. After hours of fighting and figuring, they collapsed in an empty room.

"I can't believe this is the first dungeon..." red complained weakly. He was tired, and his whole body ached. He wanted nothing more than to soak in a large tub of water. The thought made him sigh. "This Malachi must be more cleaver than Ganondorf and Gufuu put together..."

Unlike the others Spirit was not tiered. If anything he was even more alert and didn't acknowledge their fatigue at all. "We shouldn't be resting until we return light to this land. Especially not here..." he glanced around the dark room with a look of disgust.

Wearily Green started a fire with his lantern and some sticks (1). "We defeated all the monsters in here, so this is as good a place as any to rest and regain our strength." He looked up at his light counterpart, annoyed by his up tight attitude.

"Besides..." Shadow grumbled. "We're trying to get rid of the evil, not the dark. I was born in the dark, there's nothing wrong with it."

"You would say so, wouldn't you?" He said coldly, giving the shadow the same look he gave the room.

Shadow felt his blood boil, as he rose hotly to his feet. Not only did this guy rub him the wrong way, he was also a jerk. "And what the hell is that suppose to mean!?"

His responding glare was icy. "Evil and stupid... hm."(2)

Vio sprung up fast. "Shut the hell up! Shadow isn't evil and he isn't stupid!"

Spirit looked at him with a look that closely resembled pity. "Don't let him trick you. He's a shadow. They are dark and evil. They always have been and always will be. They can't change. And if I had it my way beings like him would not even exist."

All six Links were on their feet now. Green, Blue and Red were trying their best to keep Vio and Shadow from beating the, clearly misguided light being, half to death. "Clam down!" Green yelled at them. "We need him!"

Vio pulled back furiously. "Didn't you hear what he said about Shadow!? He deserves every thing that's coming to him!!!"

"I couldn't agree more." Blue said almost calmly. "I would like nothing more than to punch his face in." Spirit glared at this comment. "But like Green said, we need him."

Green nodded thankfully. "Come on Vio. You're usually the cool headed one, but right now Blues thinking far straighter than you. And Shadow I'm surprised at you. Getting so worked up over a couple of word honestly!" (3)

Weather because of the insults, the truthfulness, of both, they didn't know, but the two calmed down quickly, and looked down ashamed. Vio was the first the return to sitting next to the fire. "He still should not have said those things about Shadow."

"No he should not have." Green said turning disappointed to Spirit. "I thought you would be above something like this. Apologize to Shadow right now."

For a moment he looked taken back, then masked it with hard eyes and a set jaw. "I apologize." then he turned around and stomped over to the other side of the room.

"What an asshole..." Blue muttered to himself. "...and I thought I was the mean one."

"I'm sorry you had to hear that Shadow." Green said.

The tree sat back down. With out that adrenaline, they quickly remembered why they were resting in the first place. "Its not you fault Green, you don't need to apologize." Shadow said, then looked at Vio grinning. "And thanks for getting pissed with me."

Amused he smiled in return. "Hey... any time."

Red glanced in the direction Spirit had left. His glow was really dim from being so far away. It was a big room. Blue and Green began a discussion on what the rest of the dungeon would be like. Red glanced over again. Vio and Shadow started talking about the challenges to come in the next dungeons. Red glanced over again, and despite himself, jumped to his feet. "Ohhhh!" he ran off.

Completely and utterly confused (not that the emotion is new to him) Blue blinked. "What the hell was that about?"

Shadow grinned. "Reds such a nice guy. Even thought Spirits an ass, he still wants to make sure he's ok."

....................................................................

"Um... Spirit?" Red asked timidly, approaching the glowing figure slowly. "Are you ok?"

Obviously not pleased with the unwanted company, Spirit refused to look at him. "I'm fine." his words were cold and hard.

Not easily scared off, thanks to Blue, Red sat next to him and started doodling in the dirt with a stick. "You want to tell me why you don't like Shadow so much?" as expected he got no answer. "He's not that bad once you get to know him." he paused for a moment. "He used to be scary... if you had asked me then if I thought he was evil, I would have answered yes." Spirit looked at him intrigued. "But he doesn't want to be like that, he doesn't want to be evil. He may be a shadow but he's our shadow. He's a good guy."

Spirit didn't look convinced. "Evil is tricky. I... I've seen what it can do. People, animals... even the land gets infected. I hate it. It's so Un-pure... cold... dark..." he seemed to glow brighter with anger. "Darkness is evil. Shadows are created by the darkness inside a person. That's all they are... darkness."

The thought made Red shiver, and he rubbed his arms. "I think you're wrong. Darkness is where the light can't easily reach. The light can't reach the shadows. And shadows are cold because they are lonely, and sad that they can't play with the light." He smiled at Spirits surprised expression. "Well think about it this way. A new born baby casts a shadow. Do you think that child is evil? Or that a flower or a tree is?"

Spirit almost snapped at him, for mocking him, till he realized Red was being serious and curios as to if he really thought that. "I... I-no. I don't believe that a baby has even a touch of evil in it, or any plant... and no, I'll admit that I've never thought about it that way before, but-"

"Please!" Red interrupted urgently. "Couldn't you just give him a chance? Try and be civil with him?" his voice softened to a whisper. "I hate it when people fight... and were a team. We should all get along, right?"

The plea startled Spirit, and he had to agree. "Your right. I'll give him a chance." He looked at the shorter boy for a moment. "Your really nice... warm..." (4)

Red blushed slightly. "Thank you." he stood up, and offered his hand to the other. "Let's go back to the others."

Hesitantly Spirit took his hand and they returned to the group.

................................................................

The rest of the dungeon, up to the boss, went decently well. Thought Shadow and Spirit weren't getting along any better than before, Spirit had refrained from any shadow hate comments, and Shadow didn't try to cut him in half, so it was going well.

With a loud click, the large, over dramatic brass lock slid from the chain it was holding in place and clattered uselessly to the ground. "This is it..." Green muttered. "Every one ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be." Blue said, as Green pushed open the door.

Inside was pitch black except for Spirits soft glow. The door slammed shut behind them, as usual sealing off their only exit. Shadow was the first to step forward. Suddenly a small light shone directly down on a large gray ball. The light was enough for them to notice their surroundings, and more importantly the ceiling. Shadow paled. Every inch of the ceiling was covered in lights. One by one they started to flicker on. Vio gasped, realizing the danger Shadow was in. "Shadow get out of here."

Half frozen with panic, as the lights began turning on faster, he closed his eyes tightly. "I-I can't..." there was no doors, or windows for him to escape threw, and the wall between the Light and Dark world was too thick there for him to get by. He was trapped.

"Shadow!" The other four yelled, completely unaware as to how they could save their friend. The lights flashed on, faster and faster, until it finally stopped (and Shadow disappeared in puff of smoke), and all the light except the one directly over Shadow where lit, because that light had burned out (Haha. Honestly! Did you really think I would do that to Shadow?). They all sighed with relief.

"Man, I'm lucky." Shadow whispered. He didn't bother mentioning the fact that he couldn't move ever an inch, unless he wanted to be a light-cooked-Shadow-kebob. "See? I'm fine. So ya'll better turn your attention to the boss. I'm not going to be able to help much."

Agreed they all drew their swords and stepped towards the ball, waiting for it to attack... but it didn't stir. Green held out his hand motioning for them to stay back. "I'll go. No point in all of us getting closer than we need to be."

"Be careful." Red said. He was never a big fan of those type of plans.

Green nodded seriously, and continued to approach the ball. As he stepped closer, he noticed that his foot steps seemed to cause ripples in the gray object. Curious he drew even closer to it. 'Maybe this isn't the boss... and just another puzzle...' he thought. When he was only a foot away, he paused then tentatively he reached out and touched it. His hand slid over the smooth glass-like surface, marveling at how solid it was. Had he imagined the rippling? Quickly he rapped his knuckles against it, and it made a dull echoed sound. 'Is it hallow?' still perplexed he lifted his sword and lightly tapped the blade against it...

And it roared! Sending him flying backwards four feet, to land on his back in a daze. What ever this thing was he sure got it pissed! It rolled back, molding itself like clay. Legs, arms and a head formed, changing it in to a giant gray monster. "So..." Blue asked preparing his sword. "...any idea how to kill it?"

"Not one." Vio answered. "I say we hit it till something works."

Blue grinned eagerly. "Cool. Sounds like my kind of plan." He charged head first. He ran past Green, who was just picking himself up, and swung his sword at it. But the weapon clanged off it uselessly. "Ok... that didn't work."

"Let's try this!" Red pulled out his fire rod and blasted it. However the monster didn't even seem affected, as it absorbed the attack, and sent it back at Spirit. Thinking quickly he pulled out a hook shot, and latched on to one of the lights and pulled himself out of the way (5). "Sorry!" Red yelled, putting the rod away before it could do any real damage.

"You think it absorbs all attacks?" Vio wondered out loud.

Shadow tossed a bomb at it, but it swallowed it and sent it back at an unsuspecting Red who barely managed to dodge. "Maybe..."

"My hammer might work." Blue said pulling out the hammer (6). Upon seeing the new weapon, the blob returned to its original form, and started rolling around in an attempt to flatten them. "Hey! Hold still!"

"Vio!" Green yelled rolling out of the way. "Try your bow and arrows!"

For some reason that didn't sound like a good idea. "I don't think I should..."

"You've gotta try!"

Blue was still chasing it. "Hold still dammit!"

Hesitantly Vio drew back an arrow and released it, sending it directly into the rampaging ball. For half a second, nothing happened, then the arrow came flying out, heading towards the most vulnerable person: Shadow. He couldn't move out of the dark! And he had no defensive items! The arrow struck. Plunging directly threw the heart... Shadows eyes widened as blood splattered on the ground. "Oh goddesses..." he whispered. "...Vio!"

I killed Vio! I killed Vio! I killed- wait a second! Ahhh! I killed Vio! What is wrong with me!? And yes for all those wondering, the arrow hit Vio instead of Shadow.

(1) Its a forest temple or something, maybe they brought the sticks with them.

(2) His real thoughts are finally coming out.

(3) I made up a rhyme Red is singing in the back ground: "Sticks and stones can't break you bones, so I know no words can hurt you!" ..............yeah........... Shut up, I'm tiered.

(4) Yaoi note: Ooooooh, does Blue have a rival for Red?

(5) All the other Links have a weapon that's not their swords... I gave him the hook shot because it's a flying type one... Ya know... Spirit, light, flying... and those lights must be really strong to hold a person. I wonder where they shop... Malo Mart?

(6) This is how they're supposed to beat it. Hit it with a hammer... but just wait...

Spirit is a real ass in this chapter. Even I don't like him right now.... but he will get better... or worse... it's a surprised... What do YOU want? Of the few people who actually bother to both read my author notes and comment! Tell me what you want and it way influences my decision... Thank you!

Comment!


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own the legend of Zelda.  
AN: Wow! I'm in pain! My carpel tunnel (which I didn't even know you could get at fifteen) is acting up, and my fingers are cramping! Ow! ^_^ You may ask why I'm so happy about this, or why I don't just stop writing, and I will answer both with one word: Sleep. I haven't slept a wink tonight, and where most people get cranky, I go nuts! So this pain astounds me u!!!! And I'm not going to stop writing because my insomnia keeps me from sleeping, and I (1) don't want to read (2) don't want to draw (3) cant watch TV, I'm going to spend my night writing away!

The dungeon room became dead silent. Vio clutched his chest where the arrow still struck out. "That... hurt... worse than... I thought it... would..." He stumbled back into Shadow.

Falling to his knees, Shadow made sure that the arrow coming out of the purple swords mans back didn't touch the ground (because that type of movement to the arrow would make it hurt a lot worse) by laying Vio's head on his lap. "Vio... you idiot..." he choked out, eyes watering. "Why... why would you do something like that?"

"Don't... don't cry Shadow... that's what friend's do... I didn't want to see you get hur-" (1) he started coughing violently.

"Vio... oh goddesses Vio! Don't die! Please don't die!" Shadow begged. "Come on! We need you!"

The other Links (minus Spirit) gathered around them quickly, stumbling over their agreements, and their own plea's. He couldn't just leave them like that! "This is all my fault." Green realized horrified. "Vio! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have made you shoot that arrow! You were right! You're always right! Don't leave! Please! We need you! We need you to be right for us! T-To tell us when were being stupid!" (2)

Vio chuckled. "You're... being stupid now..." he coughed, his breath becoming more laborious as he continued to loose blood. "It's... not your fault..."

Red was in tears. "There's got to be something we can do!"

Spirit looked away. He didn't know them that well, but he didn't want to see any of them die... except Shadow. "With a wound like that... you can't leave the arrow in, but if you remove it..." (3)

"Hmm..." Vio murmured, letting his eyes close. "Spirits smart... maybe... maybe the goddesses knew... this would happen... may... maybe its fate... he's my... replacement..."

"No!" Shadow yelled. "Don't say that! Open your eyes! Please!"

"... So... tiered..."

"No! Wait! Don't give up!"

"Don't worry... you'll... see me again... eventually..." Then he died.

"Vio! No! Please no!" Shadow cried.

Green turned away, pressing his palms against his eyes, trying with all his might to keep the tears from falling. "Goddesses! It's not fair! It's all my fault!" He smashed his fist against the stone floor hard enough to break his knuckles.

Blue did the same, but repeatedly till his fist was bleeding. Red stopped him, then sobbed against his chest. "Why did he have to die!? It's not his time yet! It can't be! Why did they take him away!?" Blue, for once, didn't push him away. Tears streamed down his face as he silently agreed.

Shadow cried himself hoarse, screaming out for the closest and dearest friend he'd ever had, and cursing what ever it was that had taken him away (4). "Vio..." he moaned "...please come back..."

The gray ball of evil had evidently decided it had waited long enough. Rolling itself back into a ball, and bowled towards them at full speed. Spirit scowled. "I hate to interrupt your mourning but it appears our opponent still wants to fight."

Blue stood up, drying his eyes on his sleeve. "I'll take care of him."

"No..." Shadow hissed, carefully laying Vio on the ground and standing up. "I'll get rid of it." a strange new power pulsed threw him, and in his rage he knew how to control it. Shadows sprung from the dark spot, where he stood, and slid across the well lit ground (5), and up the wall. The lights on the ceiling shattered as soon as the shadows touched them. Amazingly fast the room was almost completely dark. When the gray ball rolled into the dark it was seized by the shadows. It roared in fear as the shadows climbed it. It tried to pull away, changing its shape, and pulling away, but the shadows pulled it back down, forcing it into its round shape. The shadows surrounded it, and compacted, crushing it till it was half its size (6). Then, as the shadows disappeared, Shadow fell back to the ground. All that was left was a large pile of gray rubble.

The Links looked at him in shock. "How did you...?" Green managed.

Shadow shook him head angrily. "I don't know... either way it's to late."

Red wanted to comfort him... but knew Shadow could only want one person right now. He wiped away his tears, trying to be strong, but they just came back harder. Then he saw something that made his heart clench. 'Oh goddesses.' he thought. 'Please, please, please.' he ran towards it.

Having gotten revenge, Shadow looked back at the fallen hero, and felt sorrow over take him again. 'It should have been me... why did he have to go and throw his life away for mine!? I should have been hit!'

Red ran back to them. "Spirit! W-Would this work!?" he held up a small glass bottle. Floating around inside was a shiny little fairy. "Can this bring him back!? They heal injury!"

"I... don't know." The light being admitted. "No ones ever used them on the dead before..." (7) He looked down. "... and it might be to late..."

"But it could work right!?" Red pleaded.

"Shadow." Green said suddenly. "Pull out the arrow. Red, come here. We're going to try it."

Carefully, as though afraid it would hurt him, Shadow pulled the arrow out of Vio's chest. With a nod from Green, Red uncorked the bottle, and shook it out over Vio's body. Everyone jerked back, getting far enough away that the fairy knew not to heal one of them instead. The fairy circled three times, then vanished. Green grabbed Vio's wrist, feeling around for a pulse. "...goddesses...I don't...its not..." Shadow felt his heart plummet again. I hadn't worked... "Ah!" Green gasped. "I felt it!"

Shadow grabbed Vio's other wrist. Yes! A shallow pulse! He looked up. "Thank Nayru... and Din, and Faror. I swear I didn't mean what I said earlier." he examined Vio, for a second. The other were rejoicing, absentmindedly. "He's still bleeding..." Shadow realized. "Guys he's still bleeding! The fairy must not have had enough power to heal him completely! He'll bleed to death... again!"

Green took over. "Some one find us a way out! Ok, we need to stop the bleeding. Errr! Give me your hat!" he snatched it off his head before Shadow could even register the order. Green pulled off his own hat and tied them together, then wrapped them around Vio's chest. "This will have to work for now."

"I found the way out!" Red yelled, holding a dirt brown pearl (windwaker goddesses pearl size).

Blue was hesitant. "What... is it?"

"I'll explain later." he argued. "We need to get him out of here."

The pearl shaped thing opened and wind flew out of it, swirling around them. When it stopped, they were outside. Epona snorted at their sudden appearance (8). "Fine. Tell us later." Green said. "There's a town over there. I'll take Vio on Epona and meet you there."

Normally there would be a fight, but not this time. "I'll be waiting there." Shadow said. "It's faster to get around in the Dark World."

Green nodded, got Vio onto Epona, with the help of the others, then mounted himself. "All right." He took off.

I... still haven't slept... but that was fun to write. Jeez... I got so many notes...

(1) First I want to point out, that in a similar situation, I would put my self between a friend, and an arrow, or a bullet, or what ever. I would do it any day, and I would react the same way that Shadow had in this situation. If you are a yaoi fan and want to say the reaction's are love related then be my guest. If you're not a fan, then view it as really close friendship.

(2) Even I don't understand why the gray ball is just... watching them. If I were a gray ball of evil, I would be attacking them when their guards were down. But... that's just me.

(3) Its true. The arrow, left in will cause him to die of blood loss. But if the arrow is removed, it could end up freeing something, the arrow was holding in place. Like what happened to the Crocodile Hunter.

(4) He means what ever took Vio's soul (like the goddesses), not what killed him, because he knows what killed him.

(5) I love this power, how ever it will only work (for the time being) when he is in a complete rage.

(6) Naruto reference: It's kind of like Shikamaru's shadow choking jutsu thing, and Garaa's sand coffin, mixed together. If you've never seen Naruto, then you have no idea what I'm talking about.

(7) I know in the game you use them after you die, but think about it. Who would die, when they have something like a fairy in you pocket? Why would you let yourself be killed, especially if you didn't know if they could bring you back?

(8) Yes. Epona came with them. They couldn't leave her alone at the ranch, could they? Besides... she's awesome!

Questions, comments or concerns? Yes, no, maybe so. Please comment. I need comments! NEED COMMENTS!!!! But now... *yawn* I am going to sleep! Good morning...


	7. Chapter 6:5

Disclaimer: Zelda is not mine.  
AN: This takes place between chapters six and seven. This is yaoi. IF YOU DON'T LIKE BOYXBOY LOVE, THAN FOR THE LOVE OF NAYRU DON'T READ THIS! For those or you who are reading this story but don't like yaoi, this takes place behind the scenes, so you don't need to read this to understand the rest of this story.

Green hurried Epona to the small village of Ordon. She seemed to sense his urgency, and maintained she fastest speed, with out him needing to persuade her onward. They reached the village in record time. It was as dark and creepy as the rest of Hyrule. Green glanced at the still unconscious Vio, before looking around for a suitable house, to stay at. "Green! Over here!" Shadow yelled from in front of a house, across the like stream that ran threw the village (Bo's house).

Green trotted Epona over to him. "I guess you can travel faster in the Dark World." Green said, trying half-heatedly to lighten the mood. "Were going to need bandages, and some kind of disinfectant."

"I all ready have it in the room upstairs." Shadow said worriedly.

"Much faster." Green muttered as they carried Vio inside and laid him on the bed upstairs. "We have to clean this wound first. Shadow, get his tunic off, while I go get some water." He ran off, not waiting for a response.

The order made Shadow blush, but he slowly reached over and undid the injured boy's belt. His blush darkened when he managed to pull off Vio's tunic and under shirt. The wound wasn't bleeding to bad anymore, but the sight of it made Shadows heart clench. 'Why did he have to do that? This is all my fault. If I wasn't just a stupid shadow this never would have happened...'

The stairs creaked as Green returned with a bucket of water and some wash clothes. "Sorry I took so long. He's looking better at least."

Shadow looked at the bucket ashamed. "I should have gotten that earlier... I'm so worried I can't even think straight."

Green smiled, and patted his back understandingly. "It's ok. Were all worried about him." He held out the stuff. "You want to clean that cut, while I go look out for the guys?"

Shadow nodded before Green went back downstairs. Gently he dipped one of the washcloths into the water, and began cleaning the wound. Vio hissed softly in his sleep.

.............................................

"Their here!" Green yelled.

Shadow looked at the top of the stairs, from the chair he was sitting in. He hadn't moved since he'd finished bandaging Vio's chest. "All right!" He yelled back, not particularly caring.

Seconds later, Red and Blue burst in to the room at full speed. "How is he?" They asked in unison. "Has he woken up?"

Shadow shook his head. "Not yet..."

Red sniffed. "How long till he wakes do you think?"

Shadow didn't answer. Blue huffed. "He'll be up soon." He thumped Red on the back. "You know Vio."

Red smiled and nodded eagerly. "Your right." Then he noticed the bloody, ripped clothes and picked them up. "I'll go take care of these."

.....................................................

"Is he any better?" Spirit asked Green when the other two had run upstairs.

Green frowned, as he looked threw the cabinets, to see what they had at their disposal. "He looks so, but he's yet to wake up..." he pushed down the feeling of sorrow that came over him.

With lack of emotion, Spirit nodded, and leaned against the nearest wall. "I take it we are going to be here longer that we should be."

"So your not even going to go see him!?" Green snapped his hands on his hips. He honestly couldn't see how Spirit could be such a jerk. 'He can't be a part of me!'

Spirit looked bored as he replied. "You've all ready informed me that he is not awake." He gazed out the door. "I have no reason, or desire to go observe an unconscious person, no matter who they are. I will simply wait until we can proceed with our mission."

Green was flabbergasted. "You're... You're unbelievable...I-I can't listen to this... go..." Red ran out side with a pile of clothes. "...Go help Red." Spirit obeyed quietly.

................................................

Red looked up as Spirit approached him. He was sitting at the edge of the stream, trying to scrub the clothes clean. "Hey! Do you come to help?" He received a nod. "Great! With two of us, we can get this done a lot faster! Team work!" He smiled.

Spirit almost smiled back, but restrained himself. "You're a very optimistic person." he pointed out taking a shirt, and working it under the water. "It's unusual..."

He laughed. "I'm going to take that as a complement."

"You should." he mumbled, looking away. After a while Spirit finished cleaning the shirt, and handed it to Red, who immediately began sewing it. They were done in under an hour. "You're quite good at that." Spirit commented, nodding down at the mended cloth. "The stitches are barely noticeable."

The complement made Red beam with pride. Before he could reply how ever Blue came out of the house. "Hey Red! Green wants your help making lunch!"

Red pouted. "I've got to hang these up first!"

"Let Spirit take care of it!" Red huffed at the idea, but Spirit assured him that it would be fine, and sent him inside. Blue stomped over to him, as he started to hang stuff on an empty clothes line. "I could hear you from inside." he hissed. "'Oh Red your so good at that.' You've got a crush on him don't you?"

Spirit didn't bother looking at him. "To be honest, you're exaggerating. And I told him nothing short of the truth."

That struck Blue as a challenge. "I'm not stupid you know! Red's to good for you so stay away. He's not interested in you, and you can't change that."

"I'm curious to know why you're concerned about my spending time with him."

Blue flushed. "None of your business! Just leave him alone!"

Those blue calculating pupil-less eyes observed him eerily for a moment, before falling into an almost smug expression. "I see... you consider me a threat to your possibility to winning his affection. Well I can guaranty..." he hung up the last piece of clothing, then turned towards the house. "... I am." He left Blue dumbfounded.

..................................................

"Hey Shadow, its lunch time." Red said, appearing at the top of the stairs. "You want me to bring up a bowl?"

The shadow shook his head. "I'm... not hungry right now..."

Red frowned. "But this is the first decent meal we've had in four days."

"Not right now."

"...alright..."

................................................

(1)"We're going to check out the rest of the town now." Green said. "We'll be back soon."

"Ok." Shadow said. After a moment he heard the front door open and close. Shadow move his chair closer to the bed, and brushed a stray hair behind Vio's ear. "I wish you would wake up..." he whispered, then sighed. "I'm going to have to change your bandages soon..." he moved his hand to the unconscious boy's chest.

Vio stirred. Then his eyes opened. With a gasp, Shadow leaned over him. Still a little dazed, Vio looked back at him. "Well..." he smirked. "...I guess I did make it to heaven."

"Vio!" Shadow yelled, hugging him tightly.

"Ow! Pain! Guess I'm still alive."

Alarmed, Shadow pulled away. "Oh goddesses! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Vio tried to sit up but Shadow wouldn't let him. "Don't apologies. Its fine, don't wor-"

"No." Shadow interrupted. "I need to apologies. I was so stupid and useless-"

"Sha-"

"-you almost died because of me!"

Vio sat up quickly ignoring the pain. "Don't say that! Nothing that happened was your fault!"

Shadow stood up so fast he knocked over the chair. "Yes it is! It's all my fault!"

"It was my choice!"

"That you made because I was stupid! If I wasn't just a stupid worthless shadow, I could have dodged that attack, and you wouldn't have-"

Vio grabbed his arm, and yanked him down on to the bed. Shadow blushed as he was pulled into a tight embrace. "Don't say that! You're not stupid, and you're not worthless!"

"You should have just let it hit me..." he whispered. Being held so protectively, by his secret crush was really dampening his anger. "If you'd died Vio-" he held back tear's that threatened to spill again. "Goddesses! I'm not worth it!"

Vio grabbed his chin, and forced him to look at him. "You're worth everything to me Shadow. I jumped in front of that arrow, and I would gladly do it again, and again, because I can't stand the thought of losing you." Shadow opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, Vio pressed there lips together.

To say this action surprised Shadow would be an understatement. Shadow found himself completely paralyzed as Vio's soft lips worked against his, hoping for a response. When he didn't receive one, he pulled back, then looked away. "I... I'm sorry."

They sat in silence for a moment as Shadow tried to regain control over his body and voice. A deep red blush came to his cheeks as he did, and he slowly touched his lips. "W-Why..." the question was barely audible.

But Vio heard it and flinched, thinking that Shadow was disgusted with him. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have done that..."

"I... don't mind." Shadow whispered, causing Vio to look at him. "You can... do it anytime."

With a look of pure relief, Vio kissed him again. "I look forward to it."

Oh my god! That has to be the corniest scene I have ever written! ...ok... I've written worse.

(1) Notice that it's very jumpy? Sorry about that. I was only going to do the part where Vio woke up, but this is the first yaoi chapter so I figured that I had to touch upon the others as well.

Comment!


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda.  
AN: I'm using geography from different games… and some places twice… and some places that don't exist… just go with it.

The Links had settled down in a small town called Ordon, until Vio got better. Vio had yet to wake up, when Red, Blue and Spirit had cough ten up, so they and Green had decided to explore the town, while Shadow watched over the injured boy. "This place is like a ghost town…" Blue muttered.

The others nodded. Every building was deserted. Not a soul around. And two dozen goats running around the fields, by a ranch up the hill. "I wonder why Malachi took every one away…" Red muttered, then pulled the pearl-shaped thing out of his pocket.

"To mess with us." Green said. "Now tell us what that thing is, and how you knew it could help us." In all the rushing around they'd forgotten it.

"Well…" he said slowly. "It's the… boss." As he said so, the brown pearl opened two black oval eyes.

Blue drew his sword, and the others stepped back defensively. "Red! Put that down! It killed Vio! It's evil!"

"No its not!" He argued, now pulling out a strange black object with red-orange patterns on it (it looks like a spork. The world's coolest Spork.). "It was being controlled by this."

Before any one could say anything, Spirit grabbed it. "This is it." He said. "This is what was preventing my powers from working." He broke it easily. "Much better."

The brown thing purred happily, and Red smiled. "Isn't it cute? Can we keep it?"

Blue rolled his eyes, and Green sighed. "I'll think about it." He turned to Spirit. "You should bring back the light, but we have to warn Shadow first."

Spirit agreed thought reluctantly. He didn't mind the thought of Shadow being caught by surprise when the sun came out. They returned to the house they were staying at (Bo's house). "Shadow!" Red called up the stairs, as they walked in.

The stairs creaked, as Shadow came down. "Hey ya'll. I was just coming to get you. Vio's up."

With a gasp, they ran up. Vio, who was, of course, reading, looked up as they came in. "Hey… did I miss anything?"

Red burst in to tears, and jumped on the bed, hugging him tightly. "Oh goddesses! Were so happy you're alive!!!"

"Ah!" Vio yelled. "Broken ribs! Broken ribs!"

He let go. "Sorry."

Green sat on the edge of the bed. "You sure scared us Vio."

"Yeah I know." He said with a sigh. "Shadow all ready yelled at me. I was stupid, I wasn't thinking, so on and so forth."

"I didn't say it exactly like that…" Shadow muttered.

"Well, I'd rather not repeat your exact words in front of impressionable people." He said smugly.

The brown thing in Red was holding, hopped out of Red's arms onto the bed. Shadow sprung to his feet, instantly recognizing it. "Wait!" Red yelled. "It's good I swear!"

The brown thing nodded then changed its shape till it spelled out the word: sorry. Vio blinked. "It's not evil?" he confirmed.

"It was being controlled. "Red explained.

"Then… apology accepted." He said. The thing changed back, and its eyes curved upward happily.

Spirit watched impatiently as they explained to Vio everything that he'd missed. He wanted to return the light, not tell stories. "How long do we plan to wait here?" he asked coldly.

Green glared at him, annoyed at being interrupted. "We can't leave until Vio's completely healed. That will take at least a few days. You'd better try your hand at patience."

"I'll be fine to travel." Vio argued.

Spirit tensed. "I'm not impatient. We've got a job to do and were not doing it."

"Don't even think about it." Shadow snapped at Vio. "You're not getting out of bed for at least a week."

Green crossed his arms. "Our physical well being is more important than finishing this as fast as possible."

"But Shadow. I'm fine, really."

"Bringing the light back to Hyrule is more important than anything."

"Don't argue with me."

"We have time."

"I'm not in pain."

"Green!"

"Vio!"

"Spirit!"

"Shadow!"(1)

Red and Blue exchanged looks. "Should we be arguing too?"

Green threw his arms in the air. "Ya know what!? Fine! We'll have a vote! Who thinks we should leave?" Vio and Spirit raised their hands. "And who thinks we should stay till Vio's better." The others raised there hands. "4-2 were staying here."

"Fine." Spirit hissed, none to pleased. "At least let me banish the darkness." He threw a not so pleasant look at Shadow.

Shadow scowled. He wanted to stay and help Vio, but Green had to nod. "Fine. Shadow…"

"I know, I know." He said, then slipped into the Dark World.

Holy Moly that's short. But there's nothing more to say till the next chapter… this is filler.

(1)That fight was so stupid… I loved it!


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I wish I owned them, but I don't.  
AN: I wish more people would comment! More comments would make me happy. Very, very happy. Constructive criticism!!! Any way this chapter takes place three days after the last chapter. Nothing really happened. They kept the brown thing, because it can help them. Its name is Piz.

The sun was just coming up, so there where plenty of places left for Shadow to stand. He was not happy. "I can't believe this! After that big argument and you're going to travel already!"

Green sighed, helping a still injured Vio onto Epona's back. He'd (Green, to clarify) agreed to go, on the condition that Vio didn't walk. "I understand Shadow. I agree. We should stay here longer-"he gave the others a look. "-but Blue's bored, and he and Spirit convinced Red to change his mind. We're out numbered."

Shadow huffed. "Fine. But I'm still annoyed." He muttered something about catching up to them later, and slipped in to the Dark World.

Vio sighed care fully, his injury still causing him pain, though he wouldn't admit it. "I'm fine to travel, so long as I don't do too much. You guys can fight any thing we run in to on the way."

"So where are we headed?" Blue asked.

Vio pulled out his map. "Lake Hylia is near by."

………………………………….

"Hey did you guys see that?" Red asked.

It had taken them two days to reach Lake Hylia. As every where else, it was deserted. Blue stretched grumpily. It was dark and raining again, putting them in a depressed mood. "I didn't see anything. But who can see anything like this? Especially with Spirit's glowing problem!" Blue had grown to dislike the light Link very much.

Spirit glared. Red pouted. "Be nice Blue. We all need to get along." He was getting annoyed by how little everyone was willing to be civil towards Spirit.

Shadow, who was with them thanks to the dark, patted Red's head. "What did you see?" he asked.

"I though I saw something shinny and blue by the water." He pointed.

"It might have been a fish." Green said. "Or your eyes playing tricks on you."

Vio sat up alert. He was still riding Epona, but his wound was healing up nicely. "We should check it out anyway. It could be something important."

Green nodded. "Blue and I will go. You guys see if you can find some where dry to spend the night. Come on." Grumbling Blue fallowed.

The shore was slippery with mud. Blue (of course) fell before Green had a chance to warn him. Blue stood up ticked. "I hate the rain! I really do! I hate water!"

Green snickered, the water lapping at his boots. "Weird that your colors blue then huh?"

"Oh shut up!" He snapped, before wading up to his waist in the water to clean off. "At least I don't have to worry about getting more wet."

"Don't go out to deep!" Green yelled, observing the waters surface.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever."

The water looked particularly dark. 'Well that rules out my fish theory… it could have been some other animal, or a monster though." He kicked the water lightly, as though hoping it would answer. It rippled, but that was about it. "Perhaps we should head back." Green said. "I can't find anything here."

"Yeah. Me neth-" *Splash!*

Green spun around, to look where Blue had been. He wasn't there. "Shit." He dove under.

Water filled Blues lungs as he tried to kick away from his attacker. He'd realized a second to late what was happening, when something had wrapped around his ankle, and dragged him into the lake. 'This isn't good.' He thought, covering his mouth with his hands, to prevent himself from inhaling more water. 'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!' Some one grabbed his arm. He opened his eyes to see Green trying to pull him free, then he passed out.

Green realized Blue was unconscious, when his eyes became kind of blank. Mental swearing, he drew his sword, and swung at Blues invisible attacker.

It must have worked, because Blue came loose. With an inward sigh of relief, Green held him, and swam up to the surface. "Blue!" He yelled as soon as he could breathe again. "Blue, wake up! Can you hear me!?" He got no response. "Shit! I'm going to have to use CPR."

Blue's fist connected with his jaw, almost causing him to loose his grin on the now half-conscience boy. "Don't." Blue coughed out. "Even. Think. About it."

He sighed. "A thank you would have been nice."

"…Thanks. Now can we get out of here before were attacked again?" Green nodded, and helped him swim to shore. "Ya know what's weird dude? I'm thirsty."

Green laughed. "You can have a drink when we find the others. "He helped Blue to his feet.

"Don't you dare leave!" came an angry shriek. They spun around. Something shot out of the water and talked Green, causing them both to fall down. "You assholes! Where are they!? What did you do with them!?"

It was a young Zora girl, and she looked ready to rip their faces off. Green blinked. "Now, now. Calm down. We haven't taken any one. We're-"

She grabbed the front of his tunic, lifted him slightly, then slammed him back down, causing his head to hit the ground… hard. "Liar! There's been no one around for days! And now you show up! I'm not a guppy!" (1)

Green softened his voice even more in an attempt to calm the crazed girl. "I promise, we're peaceful… so long as you're who you look to be."

Her eyes narrowed. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"We'll explain later. At the moment how ever, I would appreciate it if you would get off of me. "He grinned. "I'm a little uncomfortable."

After a moment's hesitation, she got up. "If this is some trick, I will kill you both."

"Understood." He said, rising to his feet, and then helping Blue up."

"Green!" Blue whispered, angrily. "We can't trust her! Remember Malon!?"

"I know that!" he whispered back. "But Blue, if she's a real zora then we can't just leave her all alone like this."

He glared. "Them what are we suppose to do with her?"

"Well… if she is Malachi, then he probably wants us all together… and unprepared. So we can't bring him to the others with out warning them first." He thought about it. "All right. I'll stay her, and you run find the others. Explain what happened, they'll think of something."

"What! No way am I leaving you with that!" he crossed his arms. "Besides I'm not running any where. You go get them."

"Wha- No! You almost drowned two minutes ago!"

"So? I'm fine. I was just surprise. I'm on my guard now!"

"Blue! Just go!"

"You!"

"Grrrr!"

"Excuse me!" The Zora girl snapped. "Stop whispering! I demand to know what you're talking about!"

Blue turned to her pissed off. "You want to know what we're talking about!? Why don't you go-!"

Green covered his mouth, before he could get them in trouble. "We have some friends that we need to get back to-"

"I'm not letting you out of my sight." She interrupted firmly.

"…then I guess we have no choice… we'll have to bring you with us." Green glared at Blue for his stubbornness. "Let's go find them."

……………………………………………

"You found what?"

"We found a Zora girl." Green repeated. "Blue's standing with her outside."

The others looked at him, then out of the mouth of the cave they'd found. "Are you sure it's a Zora?" Vio asked.

"Not a clue." He answered. "That's why I left her outside. After she attacked Blue-"

"She attacked Blue!?" Red asked in alarm. "I-Is he all right!? What happened!?"

"He's fine." Green insisted, and then quickly explained what had happened. They decided to let her come in.

"Hmmm…" she said when she came in. "Are you guy's quintuples or something?"

"No!" four of them yelled in unison. Spirit ignored it and Shadow laughed.

"Are you laughing at me!?" she snapped.

"Nope. Just at them." He snickered.

Red gasped, pointing to her arm. "You're bleeding!" every one looked at her. He was right. There was a descent sized cut, where Green had hit her with his sword. "Let me bandage that up for you." He offered with a smile.

She hesitated, then sat down next to him, and let him wrap up her arm. "My name is Ruto." (2)

"I'm Green. That's Red, Blue, Vio, Shadow, and Spirit." They were all sitting around the fire now.

More hesitation. "…Nice to meet you…?"

"We're glad to meet anyone." Red said cheerfully. "We haven't seen any one in quite a while." Obviously he was not suspicious of her.

"I haven't either…" she whispered sadly. "I was hiding one day, hid and go fish of course-" they all nodded like that was usual. "-when I came out… every one was gone… I've been patrolling this area in hopes of finding whoever took them."

"Maybe they were eaten…" Blue grumbled.

Ruto turned green, and Green hit Blue in the arm. "Please ignore him. He's mean to every one."

He glared "Especially fish that try to kill me!"

She huffed. "Well how was I suppose to know you mean no harm?"

"You can't ask a dead person." Vio said.

Red finished the bandaging. "There you go, good as new."

"So…" Ruto begin. "What's going on?"

I'm going to end the chapter here.

(1) A Zora expression for: I wasn't born yesterday.

(2) My sister chose the name, and I couldn't think of a better on. It's not Ruto from OoT.

I really would like more comments. If you like my story, a quick "This is good" or "I like it" would be nice.


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Zelda four swords doe's not and, sadly will never belong to me.  
AN: Getting a little bored writing this... any one think I should stop?

The fire crackled inside the dark cave where our heroes decided to spend the night. Outside the rain had stopped again, leaving everything cold and wet. The once clean, clear Lake Hylia, slowly turned red, and began to boil. A dark, cloaked figure stood next to the lake, looking far to pleased with himself.

As he turned to leave he noticed the barely visible, but still fresh tracts in the mud. Zora tracks. A distasteful hiss feel from his lips, as he realized that effort had all been in vain… but his expression changed as a new, better plan formed in his corrupt head. He chuckled evilly and vanished.

……………………………………..

Vio glared out the mouth of the cave. He was almost certain he'd seen something moving around out there. Not that he could be sure with the fire going. 'Ugh…' he thought, letting his head fall back against the wall. 'My eyes are playing tricks on me. I need to get more sleep.' But he couldn't yet. It was his turn to play look out while the others slept. Mostly he was to keep an eye on the Zora girl, make sure she didn't pull anything funny. Not that it really mattered, because she seemed to be telling the truth. He yawned.

"I'll take over now." Spirit said, sitting up. He was fully awake. "You need more sleep."

Vio crossed his arms defiantly, not wanting to except help from the light being. "I can finish my watch myself."

"I can not sleep anyway." He admitted. "There's no point in both of us being awake." When he got no answer he sighed. "Have it your way. I'm going to stay up regardless of your choice. So you can go to sleep, or you can slay up and endure my company." That did the trick. With a final glare, Vio grabbed his sleeping bag, curled up and went to sleep.

…………………………………….

"Lava?" Green asked flabbergasted, pausing in rolling up his sleeping bag. "Lake Hylia turned to lava?"

When morning had come, thought it was hard to tell with the clouds blocking any and all light, Red and Spirit had gone down to the lake to catch breakfast. A few minutes later Red had run back yelling that the lake had turned to lava. Ruto jumped up. "That's impossible! I mean… Lake Hylia's frozen before but… turn to lava? That just can't happen!"

"I have to see this." Vio muttered hurrying to finish packing. The others fallowed his lead, then they hurried down.

Spirit looked up as they approached. "About time. I have no idea what happened." He motioned to the lake. It was deep red and boiling hard.

"It had turned to lava!" Ruto screamed, horrified that she would not be able to return home.

"It has not turned to lava." Vio corrected, grabbing a stick and kneeling at the edge of the lake. "Lava is much thicker. This is still water." He stirred the water with the stick, then pulled it out undamaged. "See…?"

The group had to agree, not that Ruto was any more pleased. "So… what do you think happened?" Shadow asked.

He shook his head. "I don't know. But I'll bet Malachi's got something to do with it." He looked at them. "Since he seems to like messing with us, destroying our water scores would be a good way to do that."

"That basterd." Blue muttered angrily. "What the hell are we going to drink?"

"Rain water?" Red suggested.

Vio shook his head. "He can do anything he wants to the rain. That might be how he changed the lake. We've still got some water left… but we should try to figure out what is wrong here."

Green nodded. "Agreed. Ruto? Is there any other entrances to the Zora kingdom?"

She looked surprised. "Other than the lake?" she thought about it then nodded. "There is one. But it's ancient. No one uses it any more for fear it might collapse. It though an old temple." She shrugged. "And it's completely under water."

"Vio and Red, you two stay here and see if you can figure out what's up with the water. Spirit, try and find something to eat. I'd rather we save the food we have now until we absolutely need it." Green pointed at Blue and Shadow. "You two come with me. We're going to check out that temple."

………………………………………

Ruto lead them to a large stone door, carved into the rocky mountain surrounding the lake. "This is it." She told them, bracing her hands against the door, and trying to roll it aside. It didn't budge. "I can't seem to-" Blue and Green helped, copying her motion and the door gave way. "Much better."

Dark stairs lead into dark water, but at least it wasn't red. "This area must be cut off from Lake Hylia." Shadow pointed out. "This leads directly to Zora kingdom?" Ruto nodded.

"Perhaps Lake Hylia's been cut off from the kingdom." Green suggested. "…I'm going down."

"Green, you won't be able to stay under long. There's no point." Shadow said quickly.

Though he didn't want to, he had to agree. "I could get some tunics!" Ruto exclaimed. "We normally don't just give out Zora tunics, but I'll make an exception for you guys. Just let me swim down and get-"

"It's too risky." Green interrupted.

"If Malachi knows of this place, his monsters will be all over." Shadow pointed out.

Even Blue agreed. "You wouldn't stand a chance."

"You could get injured, captured, or worse." Green sighed. "We'll have to find another way down."

"There is no other way!" She argued, then ripped three scales off her arm, wincing at the slight pain. "Take these. They will let you hold your breath longer. I'm going to take a look." Before they could stop her, she ran down the stairs and dove into the water. Alarmed they jumped in after her.

She was already a yard ahead, but still visible (1). Something glowed light blue. "Hey guys, look at this!" Ruto said circling the light. "What do you think it is? Oh wait, you can't talk right now." She stuck her hand threw it as they caught up, but nothing happened. "Some kind of Zora magic…"

Blue, impatient as always, also touched it, but as he did, the light shot forward, and slammed into his chest. They all gasped in surprise. Never a good idea to do under water. Green and Shadow quickly swam back to the top, coughing violently when they broke the surface. Ruto and Blue emerged a few seconds latter looking pleased (Ruto) and annoyed (Blue). "What the heck was that?" Green asked.

"I told you!" Ruto giggled. "Zora magic! It turned Blues tunic in to a Zora tunic."

Green glanced at Shadow. "Ironic right? Never mind. This works out perfectly. Ruto, Blue will escort you back home."

Her face fell. She'd loved seeing Zora magic in action, but she hadn't realized that meant traveling with grumpy, not-liking-her, Blue. Blue scowled. "The goddesses must be punishing me…"

"You two better behave. Ruto you to do everything Blue says, and Blue listen to Ruto. She knows more about this area that you do."

"Oh shut up Green! I know what to do!" Blue snapped then dove under water. Ruto fallowed.

Shadow and Green looked at each other. "We're screwed."

Kind of a cliff hanger… a bad on anyway.

(1) You know how Zora's disappear in OoT? Well I've decided they can decide weather or not people can see them in the water.

(2) Zora magic (which I believe is made up) is rare among the Zora's, so that's why Ruto's surprised.


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda.  
AN: I was kind of disappointed by who few people commented that they wanted me to continue…oh well. Water temple! My least favorite temple! That's my reason for doing it early (and the reason why it's not very… temple like…).

The temple was cold… and dark… and wet. Blue glared. "I'm gonna get sick down here! How the hell can you stand this!?"

Ruto looked back and glared as well. "Oh shut up! You should be happy! You've been given a gift and all you can do is complain!?" They'd been swimming for almost an hour, and they'd yet to run in to anything evil. "There's a left turn about three feet in front of you, then an automatic right."

Blue slowed down and felt till he found the wall. "Got it." He muttered, swimming around the corner. "Ruto?"

Since it was so dark, Ruto had to give him directions, or warnings, and talk to him to keep him from swimming into something, or off at an angle. She could see in the dark, so long as it was under water. "This way." She called, then frowned. "How come you hate water so much?"

"I don't hate it." He argued truth fully. "But I don't like being wet, because clothes become heavy, and I don't like being under water, because it becomes hard to use my sword. You ever try swinging a sword under water?"

"No. We use weapons designed for water use. They work with the water instead of against it." She sounded proud. "Hurry up! You Hylian's are such slow swimmers!"

"Shut up! I'm not a fish! What do you-"

"Upward angle!"

"-expect?" He sighed. "How much longer till me get there?"

"I don't know… I've never used this way." She stopped. "And I don't know why. These tunnels are strong, they won't collapse… and I was always told this was a temple."

Blue stopped as well, glad for the break. He would never admit it but all that swimming was tiring him out. "I don't know. It's not like any temple I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot." He laughed. "I'll bet the collapsing thing was just to keep little kids like you from messing around in here."

She huffed. "I'm not a kid. And I doubt it. There aren't even any fish here." She started swimming again. "At least it's all one tunnel." (1)

Blue nodded, not realizing she couldn't see him. 'This is really taking to long.'

"Come straight down!" She ordered, surprising him. "I think we're almost out of-AHHHHH!!!"

"Ruto!?"

"S-Something's got me!!!" She screamed.

Blue swam down. "I can't see anything!" He snapped, drawing his sword.

"In front of you!" Blue swung, and felt his sword cut threw something. Ruto swam behind him, and clutched his tunic. "Thanks. To you're left."

Blue held his sword at a defensive position. "You wanna tell me what I'm fighting?"

"Seaweed."

"What!?" He asked, unconsciously lowering his sword. "Seaweed isn't-" a leaf-like substance wrapped around his neck, attempting to choke him. Angrily he sliced threw it. "Goddesses! Attacking seaweed!? What next!?"

Ruto gasped. "Swing downward!" Blue obeyed, and his sword bounced off something hard and rock like. "That hurt it! It's retreating! Quick! This way!"

They swam past the think, and down another long tunnel. Ruto swam next to Blue, afraid to take the lead. "I would have beaten it if I could see." Blue grumbled.

Ruto giggled. "I-It's fine. Thank you for saving me." (2)

"I am here to protect you." He replied unthinking. (3)

They swam straight for another ten minutes, till Ruto cheered. "Up! There's a door!" She swam ahead eagerly. "Come on! Come on! Come on!"

"I'm coming!" He yelled back annoyed. He finally reached her at the 'door' which was actually more of a lid. He could hear Ruto trying to push it out of the way. "Gezz…" He muttered, then helped her push it open. Light came in as they did. "This has to be the exit…"

When they finally got it completely out of the way, they stuck their heads out of the water. "Wow…" Ruto gasped. They were in a huge round room. The ceiling was far away, and the walls were painted gold and white. Blue hoisted himself out of the hole, and helped Ruto out as well. The ground they stood on was round with stairs leading downward, but there was only one door. "This is beautiful…" she whispered.

"I guess…" he muttered looking around. "The others would like it more. Especially Red." He shook his head. "Lets keep going." He walked down to the door, and opened it. The next room had the some colors and high ceilings, as the first, but it was square, with three doors. One to the left, right, and straight across, with a big lock on it. "So… one or two?"

"Huh, me? Oh… one." Ruto answered.

The room to the right was a large square room with three levers. "Well this looks easy."

"Two of then are probably traps." Ruto pointed out.

He stared at them for a second then looked at her. "Well, you're a Zora. Which one?" she shrugged. "Ok…" he yanked down the middle one. The floor tiles, begin dropping away, revealing an empty dark space underneath, leading to who knows where. "That wasn't it." Blue realized, and pulled the other two as well (4).

A small key fell from the ceiling, and Ruto caught it. "Blue! The floor!"

"I know!" With a huff, he jumped a large gap, landing safely. "Now jump over!"

She shook her head. "I can't! I'm made to swim! I can't jump!"

"Ruto!" Blue snapped as more of the floor disappeared. "We don't have time! Just do it!"

"I…" She swallowed hard. "A-All right!" Backing up as far as she could, she took a running start, and jumped. True to her word, she didn't jump far. She just barley touched the other side with her finger, and slipped off screaming.

Blue caught her wrist. "Jeez! Stop over reacting." He pulled her up. "I wouldn't have let you fall."

She smiled widely. "Of course. Thank you, Blue!"

"Now let's get out of here." They got up and ran out the door. They were safe as soon as they left.

They went in to the room across from the first one. Inside was a single door with a lock. "At least we know what the keys for." Ruto said, unlocking it. They stepped inside.

(Insert dramatic music!)

The door slammed shut behind them, and metal bars dropped down to block their exit. Blue pushed Ruto behind him, and drew his sword. "Stay here." He ordered.

"I wasn't planning on moving." She answered honestly. In the room, there were black creachers, that looked like Ganondorfs monsters, but all black. There were ten Moblin's, at least twenty Keese, three Dark Nut's, and two already large Chu-jelly's.

The Moblin's were the first to notice them. Blue deflected their arrows with his shield. "Here! Take this to defend yourself!" He handed the shield to Ruto, and smashed the ground with his hammer, paralyzing his enemies. Blue, taking advantage of their state, charged them, and managed to destroy eight, before they recovered. The noise woke the Keese, sending them into a shrieking fury. 'Damn!' He thought, swinging at the blasted things, and backing into a Dark Nut.

"Be careful!" Ruto shouted worriedly, though all she managed to do was attract the monsters attention. "Eep!"

"Your fights with me!" Blue yelled, performing a spin attack that destroyed the rest of the Keese and Moblin's. The Dark Nut he'd bumped into swung at him, and he barley managed to block it, the force of the attack, making him stumble backwards. One of the Chu's jumped him, but he sprung to the side, and it hit the Dark Nut instead, the friendly fire destroying them both. "Hehe. Losers."

The other two Dark Nut's and Chu, but he paralyzed them again, and toke them out before it wore off. "Wow!" Ruto cheered. "You did great Blue-kun!"

Blue grinned. "Well you know what they say… I'm amazing." (6) Ruto giggled, and nodded in agreement. A treasure chest appeared magically, so they looked inside and found a big key. "Well that was quick for a dungeon."

They went back out, and Blue unlocked the last door. It opened by itself. The room was had the same look as the rest of the temple, excluding a large pillar in the middle. "I feel like I'm forgetting something…" Ruto whispered, as they approached the pillar.

Carved into the pillar was a shelf, with a small drawstring bag on it. "What the hell is this?" Blue asked, opening it. It was filled with small white tablets.

"Ah!" Ruto gasped, her eyes lighting up with realization. "Those are high quality water purifying tablets! That's what I forgot! We keep them here for emergencies!"

"So these will fix Lake Hylia?" Blue asked, as he noticed another door behind the pillar.

"Definitely!" She fallowed Blue, as he opened the door… to the Zora kingdom.

…………………………………

"Blue and Ruto have been gone a very long time…" Red said sadly. After half an hour of waiting Green and Shadow had returned to the others, and explained what they'd found. "I hope their all right…"

"There's nothing we can do to find out." Shadow muttered. "I couldn't even fallow them in the Dark world… but I'm sure their fine."

The five of them were sitting on the grass, not really caring that it was still dark and wet. Green was leaning against a tree, next to Red, who kept looking towards the tunnel hopefully, and Spirit, who was emotionless as ever. Shadow was sitting a bit closer to the lake, with Vio lying next to him reading a book. Green blinked. "Hey Vio, where did you get that book?"

Not looking up from his story, Vio pointed. "There's a book shelf right there."

There was in fact a bookshelf a few feet away. "Where the heck did that come from!?" Green asked. "It's not even wet!"

"Hey guys!"

Red sprung to his feet. "Blue! Your back!" They all ran over to greet them.

Blue smirked. "Of course I'm back. Did you think a measly temple would stop me? Here. We got the Zora tunics." He held out some blue tunics. "And we got something even better."

Ruto held up the pouch. "Blue-kun was amazing! He fought like a hundred enemies at once!" They didn't stand a chance!" she was practically sprouting hearts. Blue was grinning proudly, nodding the whole time.

"Well… I can see someone got a swelled head." Vio pointed out, earning a glare from Blue. "And I don't think it was a hundred. A dozen… maybe."

"What!? No!" Blue snapped. "There was way more then a dozen!"

"I'm surprised you know what a dozen means."

"Hey!"

Green quickly got between them. "Hey, no fighting. What else did you find?"

"Just watch!" Ruto said, pulling a tablet out of the bag and throwing it into the water. Instantly, it stopped boiling, and began to clear up. She smiled joyfully.

"This is great." Green said taking one of the blue tunics, and pulling it over his head. "Now we can go and find out what's changing the water."

"We'd better be quick, before the water becomes contaminated again." Vio said, as the rest of them took their tunics.

"How much longer Ruto!?" Blue snapped. They'd been swimming downward for about ten minutes.

Ruto shrugged. She was up front, with Spirit next to her, providing light for the others. "I don't know. Lake Hylia's never been this deep before…"She looked back. "It's definitely deeper." They kept going. The water started to change, so Ruto skillfully pulled out another tablet. "Hey! There's something up ahead!" She swam closer then stopped. "It's huge! …and gross…"

The Links exchanged glances, then swam ahead of her till they were close enough to see. "That explains everything." Vio said.

Eating away at the bottom of the lake was a giant red slug. It ate slowly, all the while leaking some oozing red liquid, changing the water around it. Heat rolled off it in waves, making it difficult to stay close for very long. "Any idea how to defeat it?" Red asked.

"I have one." Vio answered distracted. "I'm willing to bet those pills will have some effect on it. If we could get it to swallow some…"

"We just need to get close enough to use them." Spirit pointed out. "We need a distraction."

Red waved his hand. "I could use my ice rod to freeze it!" he pulled out the blue rod, and twirled it in his hand.

"How long will it stay frozen?"

Red looked over at the slug. "…Only a few seconds."

"Then let's get closer." Green said. "Ruto you should stay back."

"No way." She said, stomping her foot against the water. "You need my tablets, and they stay with me." She leaned in close. "If you want them, then you have to let me come."

They exchanged looks. "Fine." Green shrugged. "We don't have time to argue, let's just go."

As they swam closer they realized how big it was. The size of three good houses. Ruto gasped. "I recognize that! Dozens of then live here. They keep the water nice to live in, by eating the bacteria, and stuff. But I've never seen one so big before…" She looked unnerved by this discovery.

"It must be the same as Piz." Red said. "It's been changed by Malachi."

Shadow frowned. "I'll bet your right."

"Then we have to hope the tablets don't kill it." Green said. "Blue, you and Spirit are the strongest swimmers, besides Ruto obviously. We'll swim as close as we can, Red will freeze it, then you two go with Ruto to its mouth."

They swam closer, till it was to hot to continue. "Ice Rod!" Red yelled, pointing the weapon. The water in front of the rod froze, and for a moment everyone wondered if the thing would work underwater. An icy column formed from the rod, hitting the slug and freezing it. Every one sighed with relief.

Blue, Spirit, and Ruto took off, swimming towards the mouth. The ice cracked loudly, as the heat began melting it. They were only a few feet away when the ice shattered, and the creacher broke free. They all covered their faces to ward off the glass like spray. The slug, enraged, spit up a blob of red slime that they were barley able to dodge. "Damn!" Blue hissed. "Are we close enough to throw the tablet, Ruto?"

"No! It'll dissolve before it reaches it."

Spirit scowled. "It's getting hot again."

"Can Red freeze it again?" Ruto asked.

"Not with us so close." Blue said. "We need to get-whoa!"

The slug had opened its mouth, and was trying to suck them in. "It's to strong!" Spirit said, as they were pulled towards it.

Ruto looked between them, and then dove forward, determined, straight into the slug's mouth. "Are you insane, Ruto!?" Blue yelled. The slug closed its mouth and swallowed (1). "Damn it…"

Suddenly the slug twitched, then twitched again. Then it burped (XD), and Ruto came flying out, holding a black Spork thing like Piz had had. Instantly the slug shrank back to normal size and ceased being hot. "Everything is better now!" Ruto cheered.

"That was a foolish move." Spirit scolded.

"I can't believe I didn't think of it first!" Blue exclaimed. She smiled.

The others swam over cheering, then Red pulled out Piz, and they warped to the surface. "You guys did great." Green congratulated.

"I'm just glad my home is safe now." Ruto said with a happy sigh. "Now I can stay here and wait for you to save the rest of my people. "

"You're not coming with us?" Red asked looking disappointed.

"We could use your help." Blue pointed out.

Ruto shook her head. "No. I belong here. I'm not mush of a fighter." She smiled, and placed a bunch of tablets in Blues hands. "Take these with you. You may need them."

Blue nodded, and put them in his pocket. Spirit took the spork and snapped it, before drawing his sword. "I'll return the light now." Shadow rolled his eyes, before vanishing into the dark.

As Spirit raised the sword over his head, Ruto gasped. "Wait! Look!" She pointed.

Standing by the water's edge was a beautiful Zora woman, wearing a flowing pink-blue dress, and had her arms outstretched invitingly. "Ruto." She said sweetly, in a warm, loving voice.

The girl blinked, her eyes overflowing with tears. "That's my Moo!" She ran towards her.

"Wait!" The Links yelled trying to grab her, but she was too slippery, and escaped their grasp.

"It's all right guys!" She told them embracing the women. "It's my mom!"

The Zora women returned the hug, turning an evil smirk to the Links. Swearing Blue drew his sword. "Ruto! Get away from her! That's not your mom!"

Ruto looked over her shoulder at them, suddenly looking weak, and tired. "What are you guys talking about…?" Her skin (scales?) turned black were Malachi was touching her (8). The black spread until it covered her entire body, then she vanished.

"Ruto!" They yelled. "What did you do with her!?"

Malachi laughed. "I put her with the rest of Hyrule!" he laughed again. "I have to say thank you 'Hero's'! I hadn't even realized I missed her, until you brought her out. I was hoping my slug would cook her the next time she went to swim. Poor planning on my part, I must admit. But she's taken care of now." Grinning, he disappeared.

"Damn that bastered!" Blue snapped. "I can't believe we let that happen!"

The others looked down feeling equally guilty. Then Green stomped his foot. "We can't blame ourselves! This is another reason to return Hyrule to normal and beat him! Spirit, if you would."

He nodded. "By the power of the goddess, I banish the darkness!" Light shot from his sword, and cleared the skies. The sun bathed everything in light, making Lake Hylia sparkle, and the world seem like a better place.

Wow… that last part was kind of... corny to write. Now for a long list of comments!

(1) If this were made into a game, it wouldn't be all one tunnel. It would have lots of tunnels and you'd have to keep up with Ruto or get lost… like in the Lost Woods.

(2) Ruto starts developing a crush on Blue…

(3) …and the idiot doesn't realize a thing… *sigh*

(4) Again: In a game, you wouldn't get the chance to pull another lever. You'd just fall. Then you would have to do it again.

(5) –Kun is a Japanese honorific; put at the end of a guys name… someone else will have a better definition…

(6)Modest aren't he?

(7) Anyone else see the irony?

(8)Goddesses! That makes him sound like a pedophile! He's not!

Comment! Please!


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I still don't own Zelda.

AN: *sigh…* I miss my muse right now. I wish she didn't live so far away… I haven't seen her in months and I'm running low on any good ideas. Well… here's the next chapter.

Deep in a creepy forest the six Links were walking, with glowing Spirit leading the way. "At least we'll never have to worry about oil…" Blue grumbled. The sky was still black with clouds but at least it was dry. The leafs on the tree's rustled in the eerie howling wind. They walked closer together than normal.

"There's a forest up ahead." Shadow said stretching, not all that bothered by their surroundings. "I didn't see much of it, but it looked pretty empty. It should be simple, especially with all of us." He looked at Spirit. The light being glared and looked away.

Vio, whose chest had healed enough to walk instead of needing to ride, smiled at him. "Your ability to go into the Dark world and scout ahead is really useful."

The others, except Spirit, agreed. "At this rate…" Red begin, holding Epona's reins (1). "…how long do you think it will be till Hyrule is back to normal?"

"We've been at this for a while." Green pointed out. "We should be almost done by now."

They nodded. "But it's imposable to say for sure." Vio said. "With all the possible detours." He looked down at his map. "Hmm… plus we're in the lost forest now. Getting lost here would be an inconvenience."

"Is it easy to get lost here?" Red asked.

"Incredibly."

He gulped. "We'll be fine." Green insisted. "With Vio's map skill's, Spirits ability to sense which direction evil is in, and Shadow being able to go into the Dark World, how could we possibly get lost?"

After a few more minutes of walking, they came to a clearing with a large tree in the center. The clearing was completely bare of any grass, which was abnormal, because of the amount of rain fall. The tree had a round, door-like opening in the front. "That's the temple." Shadow said, pointing.

Before they could do anything else there was a soft rumbling. "Did you guys hear that?" Green asked, looking around for the source of the sound.

"Yeah…" Blue said eagerly, drawing his sword.

The ground below them split, and thick, dark-green, vines sprung out. Twisting like snakes, the vines wrapped around Vio's ankle, before he could even think to react, and pulled him down. The ground closed up after him. "Vio!" They yelled in alarm, but didn't have time to do anything else. The ground split in many places around them, vines or roots coming up from each.

"What the hell is this!?" Blue yelled, swinging his sword at the plants when they tried to grab him. Red pulled out his fire rod, but wasn't able to use it before two root wrapped around his legs and drew him under. "Dammit!" The blue hero swore, swinging again. "Green, look out!"

Green rolled out of the way of another attack, but Shadow wasn't so lucky. A large vine wrapped around his torso from behind, and he was gone too. Spirit dodged a root, as another grabbed Blue by the neck, and dragged him down head first. "Blue!"

"We need to-!" Spirit begin, before the root he'd dodged wrapped around his waist. Thinking quickly, he pulled out his hook shot and shot it at a large branch coming off the tree. However the root was to strong for him to escape, and he knew it. "Green! Get inside the temple! Malachi doesn't want us dead, so we should be fine!" the hook shot slipped from his hand as the ground swallowed him up.

Eight roots, twice Green's size shot out of the ground and tried to grab him at once. Green lunged between two, and just barely avoided being crushed. 'Spirit said to get inside…' he thought, hopping back up. Grabbing the hook shot from where it hung on the tree, he bolted for the door. Three more vines tried to block his way, but they weren't big like the others. He aimed the hook shot at the door, and used it to get over them.

Once inside he hesitated long enough to make sure he wasn't being fallowed, then sank to the ground to catch his breath. A soft wave of despair washed over him as he realized the others were gone. It had taken him two years to get used to being alone and now… He shook his head violently, knowing this was no time for such thought. 'Spirits right! If Malachi wanted us dead, we'd be dead by now. So all I have to do is find them. They should be here somewhere!' Feeling better Green got to his feet.

The beginning room was just an entryway, so he went to the next room. It was a large room with a (what are those things in Twilight Princess? In the desert temple, that makes the floor spin up and down? I can't think of what they're called…) in the center. The strangely lit, wood room went up five stories, with doors on each floor. "Oh boy…" Green whistled, then went to the fist one.

………………………………………

After an hour and a half of time consuming puzzles, Green finally got to the last door. The bars locking it had lifted the second he completed the last room. He pushed open the door, expecting the boss room, but instead there were nine yellow triangles, taller then him, scattered around the room. On the center of the floor was a triforce design. 'Well… this looks… abnormally easy.' He thought, wearily.

It took about ten minutes to push all the blocks into the design. When he did a treasure chest appeared on top of it. It was a boss key. 'Ok…' he thought, sticking it in his pocket. 'Now what? There's no boss room…' a little reluctant he stepped back into the main room. 'I must have missed something…' he blinked in thought then gasped. It was right in front of him! On the very top of the pillar in the middle, was a key hole. He hadn't noticed it before, because he'd been on the lower levels.

Confident, the blond, stick the key inside. The floor begin to shake, and cracks appeared. Panicked, Green whipped out Spirits hook shot, and fired it at the ceiling, catching on just as the ground gave away. The shattered platform fell into pitch black. Green gulped. 'That's a long way down…' He quickly realized that was where he would need to go, both because that had to be the boss's place, and because he couldn't hang on forever. Rolling his eyes he lowered himself as far as the hook shot would allow. Bracing himself, he hit the release.

Thanks to the fact that Link falls a lot, Green managed to fall in a way that minimize the pain of the fall… but it still hurt. "Ow…" He struggled to his feet, stretching to ease the pain. The room was pitch black. Something must have closed up when he fell because no light filtered down from above. 'I can't see a thing…' he stepped forward.

An electric blue light filled the room. Green jumped in surprise. The light can from an almost light-bulb shaped container filled with water. Floating it the water was one of Malachi's evil tools. Vines grew from the water source and covered the room. On one wall, the Links were unconsciously being held up by the plants. Green gasped, relived, and stepped towards them, planning to help them down.

The water source's boiled, suddenly. Blue electricity ran threw the vines to the wall, shocking the Links violently. Green stepped back and his friends yelled in pain, and the attack stopped. 'Crap! Now what!?' after a moment of thought, he pulled out the boomerang, and threw it. It snapped threw some of the vines but not all. "Guys! Wake up!"

Spirit, Shadow, and Vio twitched in response, but didn't walk. Green rolled his eyes and chucked the weapon at Blues head. He woke up angrily. "What the hell! Who's throwing thinks at-!" He looked around, perplexed at being in a place he'd never seen before. "What the fuck?"

Green sighed. "Glad that worked."

Blue pulled his arm free from the vines, and punched Vio in the shoulder. "Ow!" he said, waking up, and also looking around. "Well this is interesting…"

They quickly woke the others then broke free. "Goddess…" Shadow grumble, rubbing his neck. "…I feel like I've been electrocuted. Why is that?"

"The vines are electrical." Green answered.

"Shadow… why do you know what it feels like to be electrocuted?" Red asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Shadow quickly changed the subject. "So we're fighting an electrical plant thing?"

Blue scoffed. "Well that should be-AHH!" the vine he was standing on had electrocuted him. "OW!"

The water was boiling again. Vine's sparked. Green quickly moved before the attack could reach him. "Hey guys! Don't stand still for every long! Spirit catch!" He pulled out the hook shot and threw it.

Spirit smirked when he caught in. Blue and Red looked down. "Hey! My sword is missing!"

"And my fire rod!" (3)

Vio was looking at the boss (4). "I'll bet we have to hit the base."

(Sorry readers, I'm bored)

The others agreed and after hitting the base numerous times, it stopped making electricity. "Now how do we get the item out?" Red asked.

"I'll take care of that." Blue said proudly. Pulling out his hammer he smashed the glass, then jumped out of the way. Everyone else moved as well, except Green who ended up soaked.

"Very *cough, cough* Blue!" Green sputtered. "Are you trying to kill me!?"

"Well you should have moved!" Blue yelled back.

"Please don't fight guys." Red said getting between them, before one of them started attacking the other.

Spirit broke the evil item, and the vines shriveled up and died. Whatever had been blocking the light opened, so they could see. "Hey look! My sword!" Blue picked up his sword, and tossed the fire rod, which had been right next to it, at Red.

"Yey!"

"Well let's get out of here." Green said, nodding at the red Link. Red opened his pouch, and Piz jumped out, teleporting them outside.

Short… kind of…

Epona is still with them.

Haha. It's a bad pun!

Blue's sword and Red's fire rod were out when they were captured so they got taken away.

Malachi installed the light bulb thing, when he added the evil spork of doom.


	13. Chapter 11:5

Disclaimer: Still don't own Zelda.

AN: It's more yaoi! A really short… kind of boring… kind of random yaoi… but yaoi none the less! Again: not needed to understand the rest of the story. Enjoy!

"Vio! Stop! That tickles!"

"Aw, Shadow-Chan." Vio purred. "I didn't know you're ticklish."

Shadow swatted his hand away playfully. "You learn something new every day." He smiled. The two of them were lying together under the stars, away from the others. The sky was completely cloudless, since they set up camp shortly after Spirit had done his 'banishing' thing.

Vio smirked, wrapping his arms around the boy's waist and pulling him close. "No… you're just full of surprises."

Shadow pouted slightly at being contradicted. "Hm. Shut up and kiss me." Vio complied with an eager grin.

"Vio, Vio!" Came a cry as Red ran up. "Come quick! Green-! Oh!" He stopped talking as Vio and Shadow pulled apart blushing. Red felt his own face heat up, and turned around. "Ah, n-never mind. W-We'll deal with it." He ran back. Shadow and Vio exchanged looks, then (disappointed) ran after him.

Green was unconscious, flushed and panting. "We don't know what happened!" Blue exclaimed, worried. "He was fine a second ago, and then he just collapsed!"

Vio knelt next to him, and touched Greens forehead. "He's burning up…"

"Oh my goddesses! Is he going to die!?" Red asked, tearing up.

"No, of course not." Vio muttered, opening a medical book. "Go get some cold water. Shadow, you and Blue see if you cont find some herbs that look like this-" he showed them a picture. "-it should help reduce the fever. Spirit move him to the sleeping bag so he'll be more comfortable."

When the others got back, they boiled some of the water, and made a tea with the herbs. Red placed a cold cloth on Greens forehead. "Time to wake up…" Vio muttered, shaking him lightly. "You have to take this…"

"I wonder how he got sick…" Red whispered.

"It might have been the water from that tree, earlier." Spirit pointed out.

Blue paled. "Crap."

"He's not waking up." Vio grumbled.

"Maybe…" Shadow suggested. "Some one should give it to him by mouth." He quickly touched his nose, to eliminate his possibility.

Blue, Vio, and Red did the same, before the last even figured out what they were doing. Spirit rolled his eyes, annoyed by their childishness. "Oh for the love of-… fine." He snatched the cup from Vio, then sighed and took a mouthful of the liquid. Ignoring the audience, he pressed his lips against Greens and forced the drink down his throat (1).

Every one blushed. Vio and Shadow glanced at each other, and Blue and Red shyly exchanged glances. Green groaned slightly, and they blushed harder looking away. "Um… *cough* that's all we… can really do for now." Vio stood up, and helped Shadow to his feet. "Just make sure he drinks it all, and come get me if he gets any worse." They walked off quickly.

Red giggled, and grabbed Blues arm. "Blue I need your help with some thing. Come on." Still giggling, he pulled him away (2).

Spirit glared at being left alone to play doctor. However he helped the green-swordsmen finish the tea like he should. Once done, he started to move, planning on attending to the fire, but Green stopped him by grabbing his tunic. "Wait…" he whispered weekly, barley managing to open his eyes. "…don't go…"

Spirit blinked, surprised by the sudden desire to do what ever the sick boy said. "A…All right…" he settled back into sitting position. Green smiled softly, then went back to sleep.

…………………………………

"Sick? Really?" Green asked, now back to normal. He rolled up his sleeping bag. "Huh! I don't remember anything… what happened?"

Blue opened his mouth to reply, by Spirit quickly shut him up with a punch to the back of his head. "OW!"

"Don't say anything." The light being warned, then pointedly looked away signifying the end of the conversation.

Green blinked. "Huh?"

Super short! But I like it! Hehe!

(1) OMG I finally figured out how to spell throat!!!! …I always spell it 'thought'… hehehe.

(2) They didn't leave to do anything… though… they might be spying on them from the bushes, hehehe…

Comment!!!

LoZ © not me.


	14. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I didn't own Zelda last chapter, why would I own it now?

AN: Hmmmmm… nothing to say.

"It's settled. This town is as empty as all the others." Annoyed by the lack of findings, Blue threw himself in a chair, and crossed his arms. "I was hoping to find someone else Malachi missed."

The six Links had gone to Kakoriko (spelling?) village, after leaving Lake Hylia, and decided to take a break in an old inn on the side of the road. Blue had gone out to check for other hide aways, but had returned, clearly, unsuccessful. "Why are we resting?" Spirit asked, his hands pressing on the window sill, as he glared out at the dark clouds. "We should be going up the mountain, to destroy the evil I feel!"

"Why do you have a phobia of resting?" Shadow asked leaning back in his chair, which was as far from the only lit candle as possible. "It wouldn't kill ya to relax a bit."

"We don't have time to relax!" he argued.

"Oh my goddesses! Look: Beer!" Blue held up his prize from behind the counter. Vio quickly confiscated it. "Hey!"

Shadow rolled his eyes at Spirit. "We have all the time in the world. It wouldn't make a difference if we saved Hyrule today, or if we saved it next week."

Spirit prepared to snap at him, but Green held up his hand. "Spirit, didn't we already discuss this? We'll be no help to Hyrule if we're too weak to continue. We need to get our strength back first."

Spirit turned to him, upset. "For all we know Malachi could be torturing the people of Hyrule. The longer we take the longer they might suffer!"

"'Might' being the key word." Shadow muttered.

Green looked thoughtful at them both. "You both make good points, but we're not going up into the mountains till tomorrow. It's settled, so change the topic." He stood up. "I'm going to go ahead and get some sleep. Please don't make me come back down here." With that warning, he went upstairs.

Spirit and Shadow glared at each other, and then looked away silently. Blue tried to steal the drink from Vio, and failed miserably. Red was falling asleep in the chair. "I'm going to bed as well." Vio said. "I don't think we need to have a night watch, but you guys discuss it." He shook Red gently. "You too. Come on." (1) Red nodded sleepily and fallowed him upstairs.

Blue groaned, because Vio had taken the beer with him. 'I'm not tired yet…' he thought, glancing between the two others in the room. "You guys should fight out your problems. Physically. It's what me and Green do."

"That would not be a good idea." Spirit pointed out.

"Only because you know you'll lose." Shadow said with a snicker. "You're afraid I'll hurt you."

"I'm not afraid to fight you." Spirit practically growled. "And I wouldn't lose. How ever the other wouldn't be very pleased if I were to cause you any damage."

Shadow stood up. "Forget the others! I could beat you with my eyes closed, if you didn't go and cheat, using that blasted light sword of yours!"

"Then how would I touch you, when you'll just hide like a cower in the Dark World?" Spirit retaliated.

Blue grinned. "I'll be the referee. No light sword and no Dark World. You two will fight outside, and can use your other weapons."

Glaring, they agreed.

……………………………………………

"They've been quiet for a while…" Green mutter perplexed, sitting up in his bed. They should have come up to sleep by then.

Vio looked up from his book, having not actually intended on going to sleep with out a bit more free reading. "At least their not fighting." He pointed out.

The building shook as a large explosion went off near by. "Not righting huh?" Green asked, and Vio shrugged, almost sheepishly. With a sigh they ran outside.

Shadow had another large bomb in his hands, preparing to throw it. Spirit was up on a roof, his hook shot aimed to fire at him. Blue was standing on the side lines, out of the attack range, pretending to talk into a microphone. "-and Spirit seems to have the upper hand-!"

"What the hell is going on here!?" Green yelled. Every one turned to look at them. Distracted by their sudden appearance, Shadow forgot about the bomb in his hands, and it exploded, sending him flying back. Alarmed Vio and Blue ran over to him, so Green decided to deal with Spirit. "Down." He ordered pointing at the ground.

"Ow…" Shadow moaned, as Vio helped him sit up. "That… wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done…"

"Huh, really?" Vio muttered sarcastically, earning a pout. "What were you thinking?" He asked, checking him over for any serious injuries.

Spirit hopped off the roof, and walked over to Green, refusing to meet his eyes. Green waited for a moment, then crossed his arms as he realized the light being wasn't going to explain himself on his own. "Well? What were you thinking?"

Shadow glared over to where Green was scolding Spirit, too far away to hear. "I wanted to prove that I'm just as strong as he is. Or stronger, even though I'm a shadow.

"Shadow…"

Spirit didn't answer so Green pressed on. "I'm incredibly disappointed in you! Fighting is never the way to solve a problem! You, of all people, should know that!" He moved his hands to his hips. "Heck, if I thought for one second that Malachi would sit down and listen, or that there was some way to per swayed him, we'd be talking to him. Not fighting."

"That shadow wouldn't listen to reason any more than any other dark being." Spirit argued still not looking at him.

"Yeah well, I'm not going to listen until you at least try!" Green snapped. "Shadow's reasonable."

"You don't need to fight him to prove you're stronger." Vio assured him. "You can't let him get to you."

Shadow nodded with a sigh. "… I know…" He stood up, with a wince, then brushed the ash and dirt off his tunic. "I wouldn't have done anything if Blue hadn't provoked us in the first place." (Lol. He threw him under the bus.)

Blue turned away when Vio glared at him. "Er-I'mgonnagotobed." He ran inside.

Vio huffed. "Well… don't listen to Blue either. Come on." They walked over to Green and Spirit.

Green looked between the two of them. "This fight is discontinued." He said firmly, hoping his technical role of leader would keep them from trying to pound each other again. "There is no winner. There is no loser. It's a tie. Got it?" They glared at each other, but nodded. "Good. Now go up stairs, and go to sleep. I'll take the first watch." (2)

………………………………………

"I thought Goron's lived on Death Mountain." Red pointed out, blinking confused at his smart companion.

Vio shook his head. "Goron's inhabit this mountain as well." (3)

The Link's were traveling up the mountain next to the village. The steam that shot out of the ground was dangerous, and each of them had gotten burned a couple of times. "At least it's not raining today…" Blue muttered. Before the others could respond, it started to down pore.

"Nice Blue." Green said. "You jinxed it."

Blue glared as they reached the top. "Look at it this way; at least it can't get any worse."

Hot rocks of lava began dropping from the sky, and they had to jump out of the way, to avoid getting hit. "Blue!"

"What!?"

As soon as it stopped they walked up to the wall of the mountain. "How are we going to get up there?" Red wondered out loud, echoing every ones thoughts.

Vio looked over at Spirit. "Can your hook shot grab hold of that wall?"

"It should be able to." Spirit answered, pulling out the weapon and using it to get up. He dropped it down so that each of them could use it. Eventually they made it to the top.

"Wow! It's so warm in here!" Red exclaimed.

"And dry." Blue said relived, ringing out his hat.

They went to the back of the room, and threw the entrance to the dungeon. Once inside they realized there was a problem. It was really, really, hot (4). "We won't be able to do this with out Goron tunics." Green said, already panting from the heat.

"Hey guys, look at this!" Red called. Floating in front of him was a red light. He lifted his hand innocently to touch it.

Blue recognized the light from the water temple. "Wait Red! Don't touch-!" His warning came too late. Red's fingers brushed the light, and it slammed against his chest, forcing him back a step. "-crap…"

Red blinked, no longer feeling the effect of the heat. "Hey wow! What was that!?"

The others grabbed him and ran back out before they could collapse. "That looked like the same thing that happened to Blue." Green pointed out. Spirit, Vio, and Red looked confused.

"It is the same thing that happened to me." Blue complained. "His tunic is now a Goron tunic, just like mine is a Zora's."

Shadow's eyes widened. "That means…Red's the only one who can go threw this dungeon!?"

Red froze. "Me? Like… alone?" They nodded. "No, no, no! I-I can't! I can't fight like you guys can, I can't figure out the puzzles! There's no way I can do this alone!" He looked around at them pleadingly.

"I agree." Blue said quickly. "We should find another way. It's not safe for him to go alone."

Green whacked him lightly on the back of the head. "Shut up Blue! We need to be encouraging!" He walked over the Red, and rubbed his head comfortingly. "Hey… it's going to be ok. You can do this; you just need to believe in yourself. Courage, remember?" He held up his left hand, turning the triforce mark so the shorter boy could see it.

Red looked down at his own hand, and the matching symbol. "But… I don't want to go alone…"

"It will only be for a little while… and we'll be right here waiting for your return." He smiled.

Red looked at him, then slowly smiled in return. "All right. I'll go." He held up his hand. "Courage." Before he could change his mind, he turned around and went back into the volcano. He looked at the flowing lava, separating him and the next platform and gulped. 'Guess I have to jump it…'

"Hey Red! Wait!" Red stopped as Blue ran up to him. "Here!" He said, shoving his hammer into Red's hands (5). "Take this with you. It… it might help. But you'd better bring it back, got it!?"

Red blinked, then nodded timidly. Blue started back to the other room. "Ah! Thank you!" Red called, completely missing the look of concern on his companions face.

It's a little longer than the last one I think. Did ya enjoy Shadow and Spirit's little fight?

Yaoi note: That is not to imply anything romantically.

Since they are sleeping in a building, and Malachi obviously doesn't want them dead (yet), I don't know if they would actually keep a night watch, but better safe then sorry.

OoT Death Mountain, and TP Death Mountain, are two different mountains in this fic, because I made a mistake earlier… deal with it.

I know it TP they don't need a Goron tunic, but for the point of this story they do… again… deal.

Yaoi note: Ahahahahahahahahaha-I lost-ahahahahahahahaha! It's –haha- a really, really bad -lol- perverted pun! Hahahahaha! I swear I didn't mean to do that! Hahaha!

Comment *snicker* please.

LoZ © not me.


	15. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I own this story… but not Zelda.

AN: Hey there, readers! How the heck are ya!? Good? Good! Any way, this chapters the fire temple! It's suppose to be the same temple from TP, but its not… 'cause Malachi changed it! Enjoy!!!!!

A pillar of bright, scorching fire shot out of the lava, startling the young hero to the point of screaming, and falling backwards to the ground. '…yike's…' he thought, feeling his heart pound in his chest. 'I should… be more careful.' Timidly he got back to his feet, and jumped when the fire settled down, landing safely on the other side. 'I wish I could just freeze everything.'

He was deep into the volcano by now. The temperature was so hot, the ice rod only worked half a second at best. Not even worth it. The platform he was standing on began to crumble beneath him. Breaking into a sprint, he ran to the other side, and jumped just in time. He sighed, then swung the borrowed hammer as he was attacked by a fire bat. 'I wish the others were here. I don't like this.'

…………………………………………

"For the love of Nayru! What is taking him so long!?" Blue threw up his hands in frustration as he stormed back and forth threw the over-heated room. "This is ridicules!"

Green glared at him, from his sitting position on the floor. "It's only been fifteen minutes Blue. Have a little patience."

"We should have never let him go alone!" Blue countered with a glare of his own. "Who knows what type of trouble he's gotten into by now! He's probably caught in some super obvious trap!"

"No. That would be you." Vio said, broadly, flipping threw the pages of a book. "He'll be fine."

Blue clearly wasn't convinced. "Shadow! Cant you go into the Dark World and check on him!?" He asked, angrily.

Shadow looked at him, then shook his head. "I can't. It gets hot in the dork world too."

"Grrrr!!!" Blue went back to his pacing.

Spirit, who appeared to be meditating, opened his eyes slowly. "We're all worried about him; however there is nothing we can do about it. You might as well conserve your energy." He returned to what he was doing.

Blue looked around at all of them, then exclaimed: "You people are imposable!!!" (Lol)

…………………………………………………..

The deeper into the dungeon he went the darker it became. Soon it was too dark to see at all. Red pulled out his fire rod, turned it on its lowest level (1), and holding it away so he wouldn't burn himself. The light the weapon produced illuminated a small circle around him. 'Wow it's… really dark…' A rock splashed into the lava, making him jump. "Ah! …oh." He laughed nervously, then took a breath. 'I've got to calm down.'

One of Malachi's creatures lunged at him from the dark. Some black lizard-type thing. Alarmed Red lunged off the rock onto a platform. However, the second he touched it, the platform dropped into the lava. Red panicked, as he tried to regain his balance, before he realized the platform wasn't melting in the boiling liquid. 'How come this don gun has to be so hard?' He wondered sadly, holding up the fire rod.

He had no idea how far he'd dropped, but in the little light he had showed him surrounded by lava with no where to go. A feeling of hopelessness flooded him, and he sank down on the platform, drawing his knees to his chest. 'I'm stuck…' tears weld in his eyes. '…I'm stuck and I'm alone…' He closed his eyes tight. 'What am I suppose to do? I wish Vio was here. He'd know. And Spirit would make everything brighter so I could see. Green and Shadow would tell me everything's ok, and that we'd figure it out. And Blue…' He looked at the hammer, and laughed slightly 'Blue would tell me to stop acting like a baby, then run off and kill something.' He chuckled, then stopped. '…but they aren't here… no one's here. I'm all alone.'

He sighed, when his eyes landed on the triforce. 'Courage… easy for him to say. Green has more courage then I do. They all have more courage then I do.' A large 'thud' not to far away made him jump. The hammer fell out of his hand and slid across the platform. "Ah!" He caught it before it fell off into the lava. 'That was close! Blue would never forgive me if I lost this!' He looked around. 'Oh! I forgot I have to return this. Now I have to finish this dungeon.' He bit his lip. 'But how do I get off of here? Hmmm, what would Vio do?'

His eyes widened as he got an idea. After a little hesitation, he put away Blue's hammer, and his fire rod, leaving him in complete darkness. Red closed his eyes, because he couldn't see any way, and pulled out his sling shot, firing blindly into the dark. There was a splash. He changed directions, and fired again. Twice more he did that, till a deku seed 'thunked' against a wall. He smiled and aimed up a little. The seed didn't hit which meant it must be a ledge. 'I hope I can jump that far.' He put the sling shot away, and took a running start, jumping into the right direction. 'Please, please, please, ple-' His fingers caught the edge of the ledge (lol), and his body collided with the wall. 'Yes! And ow!' He thought as he pulled himself up. 'Now I can finish.'

………………………………………

"It's stopped raining." Shadow muttered looking out the doorway.

"And Red still isn't back…" Green said, glancing at Blue. 'It's been two hours. Maybe he's right… maybe I shouldn't have let him go alone…'

Blue was staring up at the ceiling. "He'd better hurry up… I want my hammer back…" Every one rolled their eyes.

……………………………………….

The boss room.

Red stared at the humungous lock with awe. It was at least three times as big as any other lock he'd ever seen, even for a boss room. 'It's taller than I am! I wonder if that means this boss is harder that the others…" He gulped. 'Why do I have to fight this boss by myself? I was supposed to find the Goron tunics and bring them back for the others like Blue did, but I couldn't find any.' Letting out a lonely sigh, he lifted the key and stuck it in the lock.

With a 'clang' the chains holding the lock released and loudly fell to the ground. Red jumped back to avoid having his toes (or more) crushed. The door rose up. He gulped again, franticly looking over his shoulder, still debating his choices. 'I so don't like this…" He walked inside.

The room was still dark. Using the fire rod as a light, he walked along the wall on a thin strip of rock. A river of lava, separated him from a platform that looked like an over-sized version of the on he'd been stuck on. He jumped onto it. Pillars of fire shot up around the wall, lighting the entire room. Red fell back with a horrified scream.

The fox-like boss in front of him was a big, if not bigger, that Hyrule castle. Six massive tails swung behind it, and blood red eyes glared down at him. A zigzag pattern ran across its body. The lower half was orange and the upper half was red. Malachi's evil item was tied to one of the tails (2).

'I can't do this!' Red realized. He was just surprised fear hadn't killed him yet. 'I can't fight this! I need the others! I-!' The creature roared, flames flying out of its mouth. Red shrieked and jumped out of the way. "Help! Someone!" He yelled hopelessly. His pocket moved. "…Piz!" He realized, suddenly feeling incredibly foolish. He pulled the brown, pearl shaped critter out, and held it before him. "Get us out of here!" Piz blinked, then opened his mouth.

………………………………………..

"This waiting is killing me…" Blue grumbled, rolling his head back against the wall.

The mountain shook, knocking them all to the ground. "What was that!?" Green exclaimed, springing to his feet.

"Oh Goddess!" Shadow gasped, standing up as well, and looking outside. "What is that?" They all ran over.

"Where the hell did that come from!?" Blue snapped, pointing at the giant fire fox, now standing out side, clearly cramped in the space.

"Look its Red!" Shadow yelled.

Sure enough, Red was standing by one of the massive paw's "Piz!" He said to the confused thing. "You weren't supposed to bring that as well!"

"Red." Blue said climbing up on the railing, and jumping down. He rolled to lesson the impact of the dangerous fall. "Red! What the hell took you so long!?" He asked angrily.

Red looked at him. "Blue! Thank the triforce!" He hugged him. "I can't win this by myself!"

Blue pushed him away. "Stop creeping me out!" He snapped. "Now give me my weapon, and I'll take care of this!"

The others took another way down to avoid possible permanent damage before the fight even started. "Are you ok?" Shadow asked, looking at Red.

"We were getting worried." Green said, thankful their anxiety had been for nothing.

"Blue was worried the most." Vio pointed out.

"I was not!" Blue denied instantly.

They rolled their eyes, but before any of them could argue, a giant paw hit the ground knocking them off their feet. "So… what is this thing?" Green asked staring up at they're opponent, which was trying to find a comfortable standing spot.

"Another one of Malachi's puppets no dought." Shadow muttered, before noticing the item attached to its tail. "There it is…"

Red nodded. "It's the boss. Piz brought it out with me."

The fox was becoming impatient. It swung one of its tails at them, launching them into the wall. "It's strong…" Spirit groaned the first to get back up.

"And fast." Vio agreed, getting to his feet with the others. "All because of Malachi's influence. If we can get that item away from it, it will go back to its original form, and we may not need to fight it."

Blue smirked, as he drew his sword. "Sounds like a plan to me."

"Not really." Green corrected, also drawing his weapon. "Blue and I will get its attention. You guys see if you can't get to its tails." Jumping straight into action, they ran at its paws.

The colossal fox was still having trouble in the limited space. The boss chamber had been plenty big, with enough room to stretch its tails. Trying to find good foot placements, it didn't notice the tiny humans running towards it till something sharp pierced its paw. It let out a pained yelp. Green quickly pulled back his sword. "So we got its attention…" Blue observed as the massive head swung to glare at them. "…now what?"

"Run!" Green replied, as flames jutted from the creature's mouth, scorching the ground.

"Oh yeah! Watch out for the flames!" Red warned, a bit late. He and the others were scaling the mountain, already behind it. "Can you reach it yet Spirit?" Red asked.

Spirit launched his hook-shot, but the tail swished out of the way. "It keeps moving. It's imposable to get a good shot." He shook his head.

"I could freeze it." Red suggested.

"Not all of it." Vio argued, not wanting to do anything that would alert it to their presence before it was absolutely necessary.

"It's too bad I can't figure out that shadow thing I did before." Shadow said sadly.

Red hopped forward, as one of the tails came close to catching him. Piz stuck to his sleeve like some sort of glue. "Hmm…" Red looked back. "Hey Vio. I've got an idea."

Vio looked at him for a moment, then nodded understandingly. "Hold on for just a little longer guys!" He yelled down to his team mates.

Blue scowled. "Yeah, yeah! Just-ack!" He jumped to avoid another fire blast. "-just hurry it up!"

"Hey Piz." Red asked looking at the little creature. "Do you think you can get that?" He pointed at the evil item. Piz fallowed his finger with its eyes then morphed into the words: Yes. Throw. With out hesitation Red drew back his arm and threw it with all his might. The fox remained oblivious as Piz struck its side and stuck to its fur. Instead it growled and stomped its paws trying to catch the pests on the ground. Piz rolled down the long tail, despite the swishing, and pulled off the item, before jumping back down to Red.

The fox froze. Half a second later it began to shrink. Its fur shifted, changing from red and orange to blue and green. The Links approached it as it stabilized, surprised to see it the size of a normal fox, after seeing it so big before. "It's so cute!" Red exclaimed, taking the spork from Piz and returning the now tired creature to his pocket.

Vio flipped open a book. "This is strange…" The fox blinked at them, seemingly unconcerned at their presence. "By those colors… this fox is a myth." He held out the book to show them a picture of it. It was hand drawn but it was definitely suppose to be the same thing. "It's usually found in forests of in snowy mountains. Legend has it, it leads lost people to safety. A little odd Malachi would put it in a volcano."

"Any stranger than making a tree powered by electricity?" Spirit asked, not actually caring about the answer.

"Or hot underwater slugs?" Shadow added.

"That book…" Green began, glaring when Vio pointed off to a bookshelf, sitting only a few feet away.

"Good points. I guess he just likes messing with things." Vio said, snapping the book closed. The fox looked at each of them, before darting between Blue and Shadow, running down the path towards the village, and disappearing. "Well. It's got a point. Let's head back."

The fox is mine!!! I love it! Heehee! It's my creation, but your welcome to barrow it if you send me the link. I'm using it in another story that I'm working on.

I think fire rods should have levels. The lowest level would still be hot, but more like a flash light… kind of. Though I imagine that would be difficult to carry around.

Its suppose to be really, really big, so I'm not sure if that is an exaggeration.

Comment Please!


	16. Chapter 13:5

Disclaimer: Still don't own Zelda.

AN: Gosh… it's been a while since I actually wrote something for this story… I've typed yes, but actually write a new chapter… it's been months… oh well!

Warning: This is another YAOI chapter! Do you like? If not, skip to the next chapter!

Shadow sighed as he leaned back against a building. He was thankful for the suns position, creating shadows for him to rest in. Spirit's insistence to banish the darkness was incredibly aggravating, even if they needed to do it. Vio was sitting besides him, his nose in some book he'd found. Smiling, Shadow scooted closer to the reader, trying not to be too obvious. "Hey Vio…" He began. "What are you reading?"

Vio glanced sideways at him, and returned his smile fondly. "I'm researching excuses we could use to leave our team mates for an extended period of time with out them fallowing us." He sighed, disappointedly. "However I feel none of these will be very effective."

"Oh…" The dark boy replied, blushing slightly. "…and what exactly would we be doing with such alone time?" His smile quickly turned flirtatious, teasing the taller boy sweetly.

Vio looked over to where the others were to make sure they were still distracted, before bending over to give his love a quick hot kiss that left him blushing even harder. "What ever you want to do." He answered, almost grinning at the wonderfully pick color the normally pale boy had turned.

Shadow looked away, embarrassed by his reaction, while Vio went back to his book. "W-Well… I hope you find one soon…" He muttered, almost to himself.

*BOOM!*

Both of them, Blue who was lying on the sand, and Spirit sitting on a bench in the sun, looked up in alarm towards the source of the noise, each reaching for their weapon. Red and Green looked over at them, from the raised part of the Kakoricko spring… then they burst out laughing. "Guys! Come over here!" Red called to them, waving his hands in a beckoning motion. "You too Shadow! There's shade here!" Green shouted an agreement, then casted the fishing rod back into the water.

Curious, Blue got up and ran over. Not caring if he got wet he took the short way and pulled himself up where the water was flowing down from. Shadow tossed Vio a longing look, then disappeared into the Dark World, appearing moments later by the little pool above the spring. Once they realized the other two weren't interested, Blue perked up. "So!? What is it!?"

Green smirked, then gasped as there was a sharp tug on the rod. "Oh, it's nothing…" He said, reeling in and odd looking fish, then tossing it at him. "Here, catch!"

Red squeaked, horrified. "Eep! Don't let it touch you!"

Warned Blue jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the strange fish, and the explosion it made when it touched the ground. Blue turned to his attacker fuming! "What the hell was that!?" Green and Shadow both started laughing hard, while Red just sighed with relief. Still angry, Blue lunged at the leader, tackling him right into the water. Shadow kept laughing as the two wrestled a bit beneath the water, before Green had to come up for air. Red ran over worriedly and helped him out, rubbing his arms when he shook from the lasting affects of the cold. Blue came up with a glare. "Hey!" He yelled, annoyed that his original victim was out of reach. "Fine then!" He grabbed Red's ankle, not giving him time to think. "You'll take his place!" He yanked his arm back, diving under.

Red gasped, taking a deep breath before he hit the water. Of course the shocking cold nearly knocked the air right out of him. 'Yikes!' He thought. 'It's freezing down here!' Violent shivers ran threw him, as Blue pulled him farther and farther down until they were standing on the bottom. The water was crystal clear, and everything was shinning. Red looked around in wonder. 'Wow! It's beautiful!'

"Its neat down here isn't it?" Blue asked, seeing his wide-eyed expression. Red nodded eagerly, which was difficult to do under water. Blue laughed, sitting down on a rock to keep from floating back up to the top. "Yeah… it's nice… I think I'm starting to like swimming…" He looked over at the smaller boy with a slight smile. "…especially with you here."

Red gasped. "Re-!" He covered his mouth with his hands. 'Oops!'

Alarmed by the sudden action, Blue grabbed his arm, and pulled him back up to the surface. Red began coughing violently once he reached the top. Blue thumped his back worriedly. "Idiot!" He yelled. "You can't breath underwater!"

Green grabbed the re Link and pulled him out of the water, helping him rub his back. "Well stop pulling people under water Blue!" He snapped.

……………….

Spirit sat in the sun, watching the others play in the water. His eyes drifted back and forth over them, lingering for a moment longer on Red, then Green, his confusion not hinted on his face. He leaned back on the bench with a sigh. Distracted, he didn't notice someone approaching until they were three feet away. He turned his attention to the side. "Hello Vio. Do you need something?"

The smart boy looked at him carefully, then sat down next to him. "No." He answered, bringing the book back up to his eyes. "Not particularly. I'm just trying to figure out who it is your attracted too."

Almost taken aback, Spirit blinked. "You're… your trying to what?" He asked, actually looking surprised.

"Figure out who you're attracted too." Vio repeated, not looking up. "You're obviously interested in someone, because history is doomed to repeat itself. I'm just trying to figure out who it is. You're not as easy to read as the others."

Spirit narrowed his eyes slightly. "You are." He said, earning a glare. He scoffed. "Don't worry. I'm not interested in you, or your precious little Shadow."

Vio flushed, but composed himself quickly. He hadn't expected Spirit to figure out that was his real motive for asking, but he knew he shouldn't be surprised. "Good… because if you were, I'd just have one more reason to slip something unpleasant into your food." He stood up, leaving the light being to ponder the inclinations of his threat. "Shadow! I need your help with something back at the inn!" The purple-haired boy nodded then faded into the dark. "Later Spirit." Vio muttered, as he walked away.

Spirit watched the retreating boy carefully, before turning back to the others who had resumed their playing in the water.

Goddesses! That was lame, but I felt I owed you guys a yaoi chapter, so this is what I wrote. Sorry it took so long.

Comment.


	17. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Zelda, not mine!

AN: Well, you guys have been asking for Spirit's background, and here it is! …I hope it turns out ok…

A large crack of thunder and a flash of lightning illuminated the sky, making poor Red 'eep' loudly, and cling to Epona's side. "Yikes!" Green exclaimed, looking up. "That sure is loud!"

"It's not raining." Spirit said, not bothering to even try to be louder than the weather. "We should be fine."

Blue paused, then looked up at the sky and glared. "Oh sure!" He snapped. "It'll pore when I say something, but not anyone else!?" As if to prove his hypothesis true, a large rain drop fell on his head. "Damn it!"

"Stop jinxing us, Blue!" Green accused.

"Not my fault!"

Shadow turned to them, ignoring their bickering. "There's a cave right over there. We should stop there for lunch, and hope the storm passes before we're done." He pointed ahead, only a little to the left of where they were going.

The others (excluding Spirit) agreed simultaneously. They hurried over, grabbing dry sticks as they went. "We should be nice and dry here." Green observed once they were under cover. Red nodded, and started a fire.

"And here comes the rain…" Vio muttered, the sound of rain reaching them from right outside the cave mouth. "Good idea, Shadow." He sat down, using the fire light to read his book.

Spirit looked displeased at yet another reason to delay their journey. "This is a waste of time." He practically grumbled, sitting down. "At this rate I don't see how we'll ever finish."

Red opened the saddle bag, and pulled out an armful of bread, he'd been able to make before they left the village, and some apples. "Here's lunch guys." He said, serving Spirit first with a sympathetic look, as thought trying to apologies for their stopping. "There's plenty if anyone is still hungry."

"Ugh!" Blue complained. "Bread and apples? I wish we had some meat at least…"

"You're more than welcome to go hunting." Vio pointed out, graciously excepting the meal from his shorter companion. "That is, if you care to go out in this weather…"

Everyone looked out the entrance of the cave. The weather had already gotten worst from when they first got there. "It's really coming down hard…" Shadow muttered, leaning against the wall. He'd purposely positioned himself as far from the bothersome light as possible. "It's like a typhoon or something…"

Vio looked up for a moment. "I doubt it. We're too far from Lake Hylia."

Spirit scoffed. "The laws of nature don't apply to the darkness. Evil doesn't fallow the rules." He took a bit of his bread.

Shadow glared. "Would you stop lumping us together!?" He snapped, getting glaring support from both the smart and short-tempered Links. "Darkness and evil are not the same thing!"

"Have you seen evil that was not part of the darkness?" Spirit asked coldly.

The dark boy faulted for a moment, searching for something to defend himself. "Er… Yes! Of course! Look at Ganondorf! He came from the light! He's a Gerudo; one of Din's own people! He even has a piece of the triforce!"

Spirit seemed to be expecting this answer, and countered. "Ganondorf turned to the darkness. He used dark magic and it corrupted him. He is no longer part of the light."

Shadow was turning red with anger. The light being was just being so damn stubborn! His hands balled into fists. "Spirit-!"

Red stood up quickly, sensing the argument was about to turn violent. "Stop it you two! Let's change the subject! Please! Or at lest try to be nice about it!"

They both looked at him for a moment, then Shadow sighed and looked down, the anger draining out of him. "Sorry Red…" He apologized. "…your right." Vio reached over and patted his shoulder, proud of the shadow for conquering the negative emotion.

Red smiled, and everyone went back to eating, almost like the whole thing hadn't even happened. After they were all finished, they all looked outside again, and frowned. The rain was coming down so hard, even Spirit looked apprehensive. "We'll get pneumonia in minutes out there…" Green muttered then turned to the others with a smile. "Ya know… when it's dark like this we can't really tell if its day or night… and I think more time might have passed then we realized." He crossed his arms. "I think we should stay here for the 'night'. What do you say?"

The others grinned and agree simultaneously. Spirit raised an eye brow, but let the excuse slide for once. While everyone got out their sleeping bags, Red walked up to him. "Hey Spirit. I have a question."

It wasn't a very large cave, so when he said this, the other Links listened closely. Spirit ignored this. "What would you like to know?" He asked, standing up.

"Do you have a past?"

"…" Spirit blinked, not understanding the question. "What do you mean?"

He smiled. "Well I'm only asking because the readers are curious, and I drew the short straw, but… when you talk, you don't talk about the past we know. You talk about things you've seen that we haven't. I know Blue, Green, Vio, and I all have the same past up to where we drew the four sword, but Shadow has a different past… so I was wondering if you do too. What are your memories from before the Goddesses sent you? Who are you?"

The others clustered around suddenly. They hadn't thought about that (a fact Vio was mentally beating himself up over). Spirit looked around at each of them, then looked up. "I… am… not sure." (1)

"How can you not be sure!?" Blue asked loudly, leaning forward. "How can you not know who you are!?"

As though annoyed, Spirit removed his hat and ran his fingers threw his white hair, messing it up just slightly. "My memories from before I came here are jumbled. I know many things that I do not… remember exactly. I know important pieces of history that could be useful for defeating Malachi, and the puzzles he will, and has thrown at us. However I have no memory of being taught it. I know names that go with pictures of people I have never met, places I have never been, and things I have never seen. I have memories of pieces of…" He hesitated. "…your lives'. Playing with the princess, knight training, pieces from the first time you pulled the four sword." He paused again, turning his icy gaze on Shadow, who actually flinched. "…Then I have memories of darkness. Memories of darkness choking the land of life. Memories of evil seeping into the very veins of the world, killing it as the goddesses moaned in agony. Memories of darkness consuming people and animals… turning them on their own kind… memories that make me sick and furious… and keep me from sleeping." He turned away from them, grabbing his own sleeping bag from Epona's saddle. "I know that Malachi will make this happen again, and it will happen again and again so long as there is darkness... but right now we can stop him... That is what I remember." (2)

As he unrolled the bag, the Links broke out of the trance his words had caught them in. "Woah..." Red said softly, tears coming to his eyes. "... That is so sad..."

The others had the same thought. "Man... that's tough..." Blue muttered.

"No wonder you hate me..." Shadow whispered, his bangs covering his eyes.

Vio touched his mouth in thought. "Hmm... I guess the goddesses just gave you what you needed. You don't have a past."

Everything fell silent again. The fire crackling was the only noise as they absorbed the information. After a moment Blue looked up with a gasp. "Wait!" He exclaimed, pointing at Spirit. "That means you're not even one year old yet!"

The statement was so completely random, that everyone in the room bursted into laughter. Even Spirit chuckled. "Blue!" Red yelled between breaths. "That's so insensitive!"

"It's true!" Blue claimed, proud of his realization. Everyone exchanged looks and grinned.

...a little short, but there you go! Spirit's past.

Everyone falls anime style.

I really got into that...

Comment!


	18. Chapter 15

AN: Well…here's the next dungeon! I'm kind of surprised that after all this time of not updating not to many people bugged me about getting that next chapter up…ifs kind of…sad…T_T. Oh well, here ya go!

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Once the weather had cleared up (of at least stopped raining), and everyone felt well rested the Links set out again. It didn't take long before Vio looked up from his map. "We're heading towards an old temple up ahead. Built in honor of Farore."

"Do you think that is where the evil, Spirit senses, is?" Green asked, glancing back over his shoulder.

Red shivered, rubbing his arms suddenly. "A wind temple?" He asked timidly. "So it's going to be really windy? With really deep rooms that you have to be careful not to fall in?"

Green smiled, patting him on the head. "That's a possibility, but you don't have to worry about anything. As long as were all there we won't let anyone fall."

Red smiled.

Blue snickered. "Red, you're going to end up falling of so much that someone is going to have to carry you."

Red pouted. "That's not true!"

Vio pointed into the distance at a dark silowet on a hill. "I guess that must be the temple."

They walked up the hill and were shocked to find that he was right. "_This_ is a temple?" Shadow asked skeptically.

The building was hardly bigger than an outhouse. A small rectangular shaped stone building with a solid wood door. It was so small that Red could touch that top of it by standing on his toes. "Oh it's so cute!" The optimistic boy exclaimed with a happy squeak.

"This is the temple?" Spirit asked crossing his arms irritated. "This was built to worship Farore? This…This is insulting!" Shadow snickered, earning a glare.

Blue opened the door with a huff. "This thing is puny! You're sure this is the temple?" He stepped inside. "Two people can't even fit it here!"

Vio rolled his eyes. "You're all idiots. The temple is obviously underground. This was probably designed so that people could pray by themselves. And only the people who were suppose to be able to get in could-"

"Hey Red!" Blue interrupted stepping out of the building. "Go light the lantern in there."

"Ok!" Red cheered, pulling out the fire rod and stepping inside.

They crowded around the entrance to watch as Red lit the lantern. The inside of the little building was painted gold, with rich green characters covering the walls. Red leaned close to the wall and frowned. "This looks weird guys. I think it's some kind of Hylian, but I can't make it out. It must be an older version."

Everyone turned to look at Spirit and Vio. They exchanged looks. "I have no knowledge of ancient Hylia." The light boy admitted.

Vio rolled up his map with a sigh. "All right. Let me have a look at it. It can't be too much different than ours." He switched places with Red. After a moment he nodded. "Yes, I can read this."

"Well what does it say?" Green asked.

"I'm…not sure just yet. I think it's some kind of riddle." Vio shook his head. "It will take me a few minutes to figure this out."

"All right. We'll wait out here. Just tell us when you're done." Green smiled.

"Like any of that was optional." Blue grumbled.

Vio pressed his back against the back wall so that he could get the door closed. All three walls were covered in the old fashioned hylian, but the back of the door had different symbols that he didn't recognize. According to the left wall he was suppose to press the symbols on the back of the door in a certain order. 'Odd…things like riddles are usually associated with Nayru more than Farore.' He frowned as he read the first riddle. 'And they're hard! Who put hard riddles in a temple to Farore!' He almost wondered if Malachi somehow had something to do with it.

The riddles weren't too complicated for him, but he doubted that the average worshiper would be able to get through it. He touched the symbols in order as he solved each one of the riddles. It took a few minutes, but he successful in figuring it out. 'There.' He thought pressing the last one. 'That should be it. Now a passage should open somewhere.' He turned back to the wall in hopes of finding out exactly where the passage would appear.

But he didn't get the chance. The words in the temple began to glow, and before he could figure out what was going on the ground beneath his feet disappeared. He gave a startled yell as he fell into the darkness.

The others jumped when they heard Vios yelp. "Vio!" Shadow called hitting the door. "Are you ok?" When he didn't get an answer he opened the door. The little temple was empty. "Vio? Where-?" He stepped inside, quickly checking each of the walls, and stomping on the floor in search of a secret opening. His search was fruitless. "Guys!" He called panicked. "Vios gone!"

…

Vio pressed his hands against the tunnel wall as he tried to slow his descend. His hands slipped over the oil-like substance coating the slide. 'Shit. I guess that 'one at a time' part meant something after all.' He wished that he had figured that out before. There was no way the others would be able to figure out the riddles. Which meant that he was on his own.

The tunnel became even steeper suddenly, twisting sharply into a spiral. "Goddesses!" He thought. 'This is deep!' He was starting to get dizzy when the slide made an almost 90 degree turn, and he flew out into a very light room, landing on something soft. He sat there for a moment to let his eyes adjust, and let the slight motion sickness pass him by. 'Well that was all very interesting.' He stood up. The oil substance dried almost intently in the odd light, making it easy for Vio to brush off. 'So what kind of temple do we have here?"

The first thing that he noticed was the door almost directly to his right with the large lock on it. 'That must be the boss room. Great, now all I have to do is find the key.' Pleased with that, he continued to scan the room. He was standing on some sort of platform made of some soft materials that he didn't recognize. Walking to the edge he found that the rest of the room was a large bottomless pit with thin wooden pillars shooting up from the pit. They stopped at about ground height, just a jump length apart. Vio sighed. 'Red was right. Maybe it was a good thing that I'm the only one who fell down here.'

On the other side of the room was another door. Carefully Vio jumped from one pillar to the next, annoyed that there was only enough room for his to put down one foot at a time. He reached the door, which was stupidly placed because he had to lean forward to open it and jumped threw.

….

"Give it a rest Shadow!" Blue snapped, as the darker boy continued his rather loud search of the inside of the temple. "You've been at it for a half an hour! You're not going to find anything!"

Shadow yanked the door open, which because Blue had been leaning against it made the taller boy fall backwards and smack his head on the floor. Shadow just glared. "Just because you want to give up, doesn't mean that I'm going too! Vio could be in serious trouble!"

Green crossed his arms with a sympathetic sigh. Red and Shadow both looked really concerned and he wanted to cheer them up. "Don't worry you guys. He'll be just fine."

"But what if he's not!" Shadow exclaimed. "What if he's in trouble? His wound isn't fully healed yet Green! What if it opens while he's fighting something!"

Red looked down, digging into the ground with his toes. "What if this is Malachi's plan…to separate us again…What if Vio isn't even in there…"

Shadow looked horrified at that idea. Green held up his hands quickly. "Now stop that! This is Vio we're talking about! Shadow, you know that he has some bandages and stuff on him in case that happens. And Red, you, Blue, and I have already had to do a dungeon alone. This makes perfect sense. Vio is fine. Really. If Blue can make it threw a dungeon alone, I know Vio can."

Blue sat up. "Hey!"

Green smirked at him, and was glad to see Red perk up a bit. Shadow didn't look completely convinced however. "I know all that but…he died before Green. I can't help it."

"He will be fine. You just have to have faith."

Shadow sighed. "I-I'm still going to try. I don't have anything else to do, and maybe I can get lucky." He knew the others would see threw his excuse, but he didn't really care. He closed the door and went back to his searching.

Blue glared. "Jeez! Obsessive much!"

"Your one to talk." Green grumbled.

Red looked at him. "Don't be upset about it Blue. Vio and Shadow are really close. It makes sense that he is worried. I mean, Vio was the first person to befriend Shadow."

Blue huffed. "Whatever" He looked away.

Green smiled. "The only reason Blue is upset is because he is worried too."

Blue sputtered. "I-I am not!"

Red smiled as well.

….

Vio put his hands on his knees and sighed as he finished pushing the last block into place. 'Goddesses. I never thought that I would do this but I kind of wish that Blue was here. He would love to do all this physical labor.' The levers creaked as the weight of the boxes pushed them down. A door appeared. 'Then again, I'm starting to wish that they were all here. It's really quiet without them talking in the background.'

He pushed open the new door, and stepped inside onto another platform. The new room looked completely empty. It was just a long empty room with nothing to jump too. 'A dead end? No that can't be right. This is the only room I can get to, so what is the trick here.' He looked around for anything out of the ordinary.

The light in that room was coming from the pit. Vio could see the shadow of the platform that he was standing on, on the ceiling. But what was odd was that the shadow continued forward. "Hmm…" He took a step forward, and his foot hit 'nothing' with a gentle tap. He walked forward on air smirking smugly. 'An invisible platform. Convenient. But what is the point if it doesn't lead to anything?' The moment he thought that the platform began to descend, stopping at a lower point in front of a door. 'This is getting very troublesome.'

He went through the door. The room he walked into had a descent floor for once. However he didn't get the time to be thankful for that before three bars dropped into place blocking his exit. 'Well I know this was coming.' He thought as a large monster appeared in front of him. 'I hope this doesn't take too long.' He thought as he rushed forward.

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Ok! I am really sorry that it took so long to get this chapter up. I was busy with my other stories, and I had a bit of writers block, and well…that is why this chapter is so short! Super sorry! I will try to make the next update much faster! Comment.

LoZ © Not me.


	19. Chapter 16

AN: Ta-Daaaaaaaa! *Ducks behind nearest object* I know it's taken me forever to get this out, but I've been dealing with major writers block (among other things…) but hey! Here's the next chapter, and I won't hold you up any more.

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Vio jerked out of his half-sleep when a noise reached his ear. He quickly scanned the room, but was sluggish to get up if he couldn't find anything. The temple had taken quite a bit out of him, and he'd finally had to lie down. His internal clock told him he'd been out for a few hours.

It took about ten minutes to really wake up (1) then he pulled out his map. 'According to this, the only room I haven't explored is behind that door. The key has to be there.' He rolled it up and stuck it in his belt.

The door opened silently. For the first time in that temple the room had a completely solid floor, and walls, although it was completely dark in the sky. The room was round, and platforms lined the walls leading up. High up he saw the boss key hanging above the platform. In the center of the room was a large rock.

It looked easy enough, however the bars that dropped in front of the door made it clear it wouldn't be as simple as it looked. Vio watched as the rock in the center began to shake. Two large wings spread apart and a beak opened to screech at him.

Vio jumped, pulling out his shield incase the thing decided to attack. It wasn't a rock. At least… The large bird struggled to lift the heavy weighted wings that clearly weren't natural. The head was a mix of stone, and white-gold feathers, and the crest seemed to be the only part of it that hadn't changed yet.

The large bird was a Roc, and Vio scowled at Malachi's sense of humor. However despite the extra weight the thing had acquired, it flapped its wings and managed to shot into the sky out of sight.

Vio quickly clambered onto one of the platforms. He'd rather not fight the bird of prey if he could avoid it. Uncountable it was under Malachi's control like all the others. Each platform was about a jump apart, but he had to catch the edge of each one and pull himself up, which was tiring. 'I'd better not fall…' he thought not excited about making the return trip.

About halfway up the roc descended screeching at him. Vio lunged away as the bird smashed into the platform he'd been on. Due to the extra weight, the bird not only smashed into the platform, but completely destroyed the thing.

Vio spun around and went the other way. 'I don't think I can afford to not engage it...' he jumped along a couple of beams and up two more platform before the creature composed itself and went after him again.

Vio lunged away, but his arm got caught by a sharp wing. 'Damn it.' He thought, falling to a lower platform. He grunted at the impact and clutched his arm, the sleeve slowly turning red. 'And I just washed this shirt.'

Luckily it was his shield arm, not his left, however he still needed that. Two dark eyes found him, and he drew his sword. The roc, who attacked with talons, exposed its chest when it flew at him. Vio lunged forward putting all his weight behind the swing and knocked it back.

The bird was so shocked it lost its balance and crashed down, breaking through the floor.

Vio stood ready for a moment, then lowered his sword. 'Is that it?' Cautiously he bandaged his arm and finished climbing up. When he grabbed the key, the bars opened.

With the key in hand there was no reason to do anything but go back to the main room. As he finished jumping the pillars he noticed a switch that hadn't been there before. He realized it probably opened the trap door, and placed a pot on it to keep it down.

…

Blue scowled as Red dropped a crown of flowers on his head. It had been a day since Vio had disappeared and they were still waiting for Shadow to figure it out or for Vio to find something and get them. Green was eating breakfast, pondering what to do with Vios share, Spirit was meditating and Shadow was once again in the temple.

"Would you stop!" Blue snapped pulling the flowers off. Red laughed, having done it just to rile him up. "Stupid flowers…"

Red placed the crown on his head, not wanting to waste them. "I wish I was a prince." He said, for no apparent reason.

Blue rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah? And why would you want that?"

"The food." Red said with absolute conviction. Then he poked Blue. "And so that I could order you around."

Blue grabbed his tunic threateningly.

Green chuckled. "You could do that Red. You just have to marry the Princess."

Red laughed while Blue made a face. "Ew! Green! She's like our sister!"

Green shrugged. "I'm just kidding. Besides, the Princess-"

"AH!"

Shadow!

Blue was the first one up. "Shadow!" he yelled throwing open the door. The momentum made him step forward. A yelp escaped him as his foot bypassed where the floor should have been. The only thing that kept him from falling was the hand that suddenly gripped his bicep.

"Careful there Mr. Hero." Shadow teased, keeping them both from falling with his abilities. He pushed blue back up and nodded at the door. "You almost hit me with that."

"You yelled." Blue countered, and the others ran up behind him.

"It opened on its own, of course I yelled." He grinned. "Buts it's open."

"And Vio?" Red asked.

Everyone was quiet and Shadow grinned wider at the voice that could be heard. It was definitely Vio.

"What is he saying?" Spirit asked.

"He's too far away."

"Someone should-"

Before they could finish, Shadow crossed his arms and dropped into the hole impatiently. He heard the others call after him but he ignored them. The twisty slide was fun, but he stopped himself before he slid out, and before he could collide with Vio's shield.

"Vio!"

The boy was sitting inside the slide, bracing the shield with his body. He sighed with relief. "I'll take it you didn't hear me."

Shadow frowned. "No. What are you doing?"

"I was trying to warn you that there's light down here. I couldn't let you go flying out like I did."

Shadow hesitantly reached right past him to see if the artificial light would hurt him, and jerked his hand away. "I'm glad you did. That'll kill me."

"Kill you?" Vio asked alarmed.

"Well, ya know, send me back to the Dark World in such a way that I would be of absolutely no use to ya for quite a while." He shivered, then faded out of view.

Vio sighed lowering his shield. Shadow would be no help during that boss battle, but there was no helping that. As he thought that Green, Red, and Blue went flying down the slide, smacking right into him and ending up a big pile on the ground.

"Y-You idiots!" Vio yelled, struggling beneath them. "Get off me; I'm injured!"

Red looked down at him with a big grin. "Vio!"

"Off!"

They kind of floundered around a bit, before Spirit came flying out as well and landed on top of them. "…The hookshot didn't reach as far as I thought it would…"

Vio groaned, dropping his head to the ground. Finally everyone managed to get off. "Are you ok, Vio?" Red asked looking him over.

Blue crossed his arms. "What I want to know is what took you so long? Even Red didn't take that long."

Red and Vio both glared at that. "I took a nap. And I'm fine Red." He pulled out the boss key. "I've got this, so we can go right in." Spirit nodded in agreement.

Green nodded as well. "It looks like everyone's set."

Vio got up and unlocked that door. The massive lock fell to the ground with a clang. They pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The boss room looked familiar. A round room with platforms along the walls. The most immediate difference was that instead of a hole in the middle of the floor, there was floor in the middle of the hole. Most of the floor was missing except for a section in the middle that was held up by four strips of floor that attached to a rather thin circle that ran around the room. In the center of the room was some kind of nest.

Green drew his sword and boldly started down the strip in front of them, followed by Blue complaining loudly about not going first. "Vio! How does this look?"

"I've seen a room like this before!" Vio called back, climbing on one of the platforms and motioning to the others to do the same. "Actually, I think we might-"

He was cut off by a familiar screech that filled the room. Everyone drew a weapon expectantly.

Vio jumped aside. "I was right."

The roc from earlier shot out of one of the open spaces. It could have been a different roc, but the chest still sported the injury Vio had given it earlier. "What is that?" Green asked.

"A roc!"

"Ha-ha." Blue laughed dryly as he and Green lunged out of its way. "How do we take it down?"

"Find the thing Malachi is manipulating it with."

"When was the last time we were allowed to just kill something?" Blue complained.

The roc continued to attack the two on the ground until Red distracted it with the fire rod. "Here birdie!" He climbed up more.

"Spirit, get up high and see if you can spot that thing." Vio ordered, aiming an arrow and firing at the things eye. It scrapped off the rock, but it was close enough to get its attention. The massive head swung around, and the bird redirected its attack.

Green and Blue darted along the strip. "How the hell are we supposed to find the stupid thing?"

"Maybe it's under all the rock." Red suggested.

"Let's hope not." Vio told him. "Because then we have to kill it." Red looked alarmed.

Green and Blue made it to the center while Red and Vio played a deadly ping-pong game. The nest thing was in fact a nest. And farther more, it was occupied. "Guys! There are eggs!"

Red lit up; However Greens call alerted the bird. It shrieked and the other three readied their weapons to distract it, but the thing circled the nest, instead of attacking. Screeching and swooping, but not coming to close.

"It is probably angry we are so close to its nest." Spirit said, dropping down next him.

"And it won't go near the nest because it's afraid of damaging the eggs with its new body."

"I can't find Malachi's item."

Vio sighed disappointed. That being said, was there any other option? "Green! We can't find it!"

The other looked at them, then at the eggs, then sighed. "Then change of plans! Treat this like any other enemy!"

'It's going to be difficult to ignore that we're going to kill a female of an endangered species.' Vio thought drawing his arrow, and firing the moment he had a target.

The arrow sailed directly into the wound he'd inflicted earlier. Same as before it surprised the roc and she fell out of the air. "Is that it then?" Red asked running over.

"Not yet…"

Blue and Green started towards them.

The roc soared past them, disappearing into the darkness above. A second later it folded its wings around itself and dive-bombed one of the walls. The boys tried to jump out of the way as the body smashed into the platforms, but they were a second to late, the three of them getting knocked to the side.

"Guys!"

There wasn't enough time to get to them. The roc was preparing another assault. "Leave them alone!" He pulled out his boomerang and shucked it.

It didn't hurt the thing, but it was a distraction. "This way you over grown cucco! Blue get up high, I'll distract it!"

Blue didn't argue. The roc unfortunately had grown a little more accustom to its body and was becoming more accurate. It was all Green could do to avoid it. "Any second Blue!"

"I'm working on it!" Blue snapped. "Don't get your tunic in a twist!"

"You're absolutely right! Take your time. I can keep this up all day. Wait- No I can't!" He stopped short and she flew right past him. "Ready?"

"Yeah!"

Green ran under the platform Blue was on. The bird chased him, like he'd expected. And Blues hammer smashed into its head with an audible **crack**.

The body crumpled, falling limply. They waited prepared, for a whole minute before sprinting to the others. "Red!" Green exclaimed, kneeling next to him and Vio. "Are you all right?"He was the only one of the three to retain consciousness.

He looked a little dizzy, and moved slowly, but he nodded. "I'm fine? What about Vio? And are Blue and Spirit ok?"

"I'm right here." Blue said kneeling as well. Vio was unconscious, but didn't seem to have any new injuries."

"Blue stay here. I'm going to check on Spirit." Green hopped up. The roc had left a hole in the wall that he couldn't jump so he had to run around to the other side.

About halfway, he heard a noise. 'Damn it!'

The roc was back. It came up in front of the little group. Blue lunged between his companions and the creature but it was clear he didn't really have any sort of plan.

Green started running back, but slowed when the thing didn't attack. "What is…?"

It screeched, and Blue covered with his shield, but nothing happened. The bird screeched again and again. At about the 8th time Blue inched forward.

"What are you doing idiot!" Green yelled speeding up again.

"Shut up! I know what I'm doing!" The next time she screeched, Blue reached forward and pulled something out of its beak. "I got it!"

The roc shuddered, the stone crumbling and falling off until it was back to normal. The bird still wobbled in the air, before collapsing onto one of the strips. Green hesitated, then returned to his original task.

Spirit was in worse shape then the other two; He'd gotten hit pretty hard, and his head was bleeding. However after a quick inspection Green realized nothing had broken and it was just a shallow cut. "We'd better get these guys out of here. Red."

Red nodded dazed and pulled out Piz, who happily swallowed them up.

.

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YAYYYYYYYY! Finally! A new chapter! And don't fret, I've already started on the next chapter, the next update won't take nearly as long as this one took!

(1) He has low blood pressure.

For anyone who is just watching this story and not me, you might not have noticed but I've started a remake of earlier chapters. Just so you know!

LoZ © Not me.


	20. Chapter 17

AN: I know that I kind of owe you a .5 chapter but… instead here's filler! Because I haven't quite figured out how to work a .5 chapter before this… yet. Look for it in the remake. Enjoy.

* * *

The moment they were all above ground Shadow appeared, running over to help Blue with Vio, whom was still unconscious. He didn't ask what had happened; he'd seen it all from their shadows.

"We need to set up camp." Green said, pulling Spirit onto his back. "And for my comfort I want it to be as far way from here as possible."

Once Vio was on Blues back Shadow went ahead, scouting out a good campsite along a cliff wall that would keep them pretty well covered. Red was pretty out of it, when they made it there, but he managed to roll out the bedrolls for the others before collapsing onto his own.

Green looked them over. They had managed some relatively bad luck in that last battle. He rummaged through the saddlebag, until he found the medical supplies. "Shadow, Blue. I'll take care of them. You guys go get fire wood and something to eat."

They nodded and bolted into the woods. Green cleaned Spirits cut, and checked the other two over for any visible, treatable, injuries. He was pleased not to find anything serious, but that only made him more concerned when none of them woke before the others got back.

"What now?" Blue asked, as Green tended to dinner.

"Nothing. These guys need rest, and we can't do anything until they're better." Green shook his head.

"I meant 'what are we going to do about them now'?" Blue said, looking uncharacteristically worried. "They haven't woken up. What if something is messed up inside them?"

Green frowned. "There's nothing that we can do for them."

"Like hell there isn't!" He stood up and grabbed Epona's reins. "The last town is only an hour or so back! I'm going to go see if they had a potion shop!" Without waiting for a reply he mounted and rode off.

Green huffed.

"Should I go after him?" Shadow asked, in a voice that suggested he had many creative and fun ways to send Blue running back.

"Let him go. He's right." Green poked at the fire. "Its better to be safe then sorry."

It was quite a while before any of them woke up. Hours after Blue had already gotten back. Shadow had gone to the Dark World to rest, Blue was keeping watch, and Green was dozing off where he sat.

Two blues eyes opened. "Did we win then?"

"Go back to sleep Vio." Blue ordered.

Green roused himself. "Vio? How are you feeling?"

Vio sat up a little unfocused. Not like he was sick, just slowly, like usual. After a few minutes he looked around and then at them. "What happened?"

"You got knocked out. But we defeated the roc. How do you feel?" Green handed him a potion Blue had fetched.

"I feel fine except for a headache." He accepted the drink.

"Well I want you to sleep a little more anyway."

Vio sat up a little straighter. "If anything it looks like you need to sleep."

Green smiled. "Blue is going to take first watch and I'm going to bed inn a minute."

Vio looked skeptical, but Green promised. "Are we taking a break then?" He asked lying back down. He let out a blissful sort of sigh.

"Yeah. We're taking a break."

…..

It was another day before Red woke up. Vio determined that he was more or less fine. He was pretty normal, but it quickly became obvious Red had a concussion. And Sprit probably did too. Red accepted that easily; spirit… didn't.

The others were eating when all of a sudden the light being jolted into sitting position, only to collapse back down, clutching his head. Green quickly got up. "Hey, don't move so fast so quickly." He grabbed one of the bottles. "Are you ok?"

"I have felt better." Spirit answered, sitting up much more slowly. He drank the bottle Green offered him without question. "I sense it…" He muttered. Green pulled out the evil item of Malachi's. Spirit took it and crushed it. Once that was done he started to stand. "Where's my sword?"

Green grabbed his shoulder to prevent him from moving. "Oh no. You're not well enough to be doing anything."

Spirit knocked his hand away, and stood up anyway. It didn't work like he'd planned as the world spun around him and he dropped to his knee. Blue made to help him that time, but Spirit shook his head. "I need my sword. I need to bring back the light so that we can move on."

"We can't move on." Green insisted. He wasn't sure if bringing the light back required any energy, and he didn't ask, because he doubted he would get a straight answer anyway.

"I'm fine." Spirit insisted. "Fine enough for this. We can't afford to take our time."

"Exactly how many times are we going to have this argument?" Green asked, grabbing his arm, and making him look at him. "This is an order Spirit." Lie down."

The light being looked at him, his expression revealing nothing. Finally he nodded. Green let him go, and he did as he was told. "Besides Red can barely move either, and Vio is in no condition to travel for a least another day." Red looked over from his place with a little wave, while Vio looked over mildly irritated.

"We shouldn't remain here." Spirit said. "I still believe that we should move."

"We completely understand what you believe…" Shadow muttered, earning a glare.

"Shut up Shadow." Green ordered, but looked back at Spirit. "No arguments. I'm the leader here. And were resting. Blue!" The other jumped. He'd been agitating his hat. "You look antsy as hell. Go collect some more firewood."

Blue would have grumbled and complained about being ordered around, if he wasn't too busy springing on the excuse to do _something_. He'd been waiting for hours, with no one but Shadow to spar with, and the Dark being got bored quickly.

"It will only take a few days, right Green?" Red asked once Blue was gone. He would daze from time to time, so he wasn't in a rush, but he knew how important it was to keep going. He didn't want to be the one holding everything up, but what could he do? Spirit was injured too.

"Right. That should be all. But you guys take all the time you need and focus on getting better." Spirit didn't answer, and when Green looked back he found that the shining Link had fallen back asleep. He couldn't help smiling. He found Spirit to be interesting, and amusing at times. He was so serious some times. And then he was childish.

Vio looked up over the top of his book, and arched an eyebrow. "You like him." (1) He stated simply.

Green looked startled. Then he looked a little guilty. "Yeah, I do. Sorry. I know you and Shadow dislike him, but he's a good ally."

Shadow didn't say anything, but Red shook his head. "Don't apologies! I like him too!" He clenched his fists with a nod. "He says some wrong thing but his hearts in the right place. He just doesn't understand yet!"

Green reached over and patted his head. "No offence Red, but you like everyone. That part isn't a very good argument."

"Well… I like him."

Everyone turned in surprise to Shadow, who had been the one to talk. His expression turned annoyed when they didn't say anything. "What?" He asked.

"You… do?" Green asked. "I thought you hated him…"

It was Shadows turn to arch an eyebrow. "Why would you think that? I've liked him all along/"

Green made some sort of disbelieving sound, while Vio smirked. 'Ah… so I _was_ right…'

"But-! He's a jerk."

"Oh? Now you're arguing against him?"

"I mean he's jerk to you."

Shadow shrugged. "That's only because he thinks that I'm evil incarnate. At one point in time I would have found that flattering. "Most of the things he says pisses me off, but then again, that's the same with Blue isn't it? And his single-minded determination is admirable. Don't tell him I said so, but he is something like the embodiment of light and… I like… the light."

Green looked at him for a long time before realizing that he needed to sit down and have a long talk with Shadow. He clearly didn't know as much about him as he thought he did. He turned to Vio. "What about you?"

Vio didn't look up, answering quickly like he'd expected the question. "I think that he is a valuable source of information."

"What a diplomatic answer."

"In other words you don't like him." Shadow clarified in a teasing way. Vio didn't respond.

"Hey guys!" They all looked up as they heard Blue calling them. A few seconds later he appeared, running up to them. "Someone has got to come see this!"

Green shifted. "What is it?"

"Well it's a-damn it, I don't know! That's why someone needs to come look!" They exchanged glances.

…..

"What the hell-"

"-Is that?"

Blue crossed his arms expectantly. He had done his job in leading Green and Vio to the stop. Shadow had stayed behind at the camp to watch the invalid. "That's what I want to know. Don't you two have any idea?"

What he had found was a small section of the woods, where the ground had turned a gray-brown=purple-_black _color. The grass, and leaves that should have been there were completely gone, like they had burned away or something, which was what Blue had first thought it was. Every tree that was inside the black circle had turned black as well, and fallen over.

"I've never seen anything like this." Green admitted, stepping towards it, but was stopped by Vio's hand on his arm.

"Wait. Don't you smell that?"

"I would rather not he admitted. He'd noticed it when they'd gotten close. He'd been around it enough to recognize the sent of death.

"Its poisonous." Vio pointed out. "Its probably any forest animal that wondered onto it, or were living in the trees."

"And for the smell to be this strong, there has to be a lot of them." He moved closer to Green incase he tried to go farther. "It has to be fast acting, Green. You can't go in there."

Vio refrained from making any jokes about him catching that, only because of how serious the situation appeared to be.

"What do you thing could have caused this?" Green asked.

Vio drew his sword and stuck it into the grass-covered ground. The tip penetrated the dirt less then an inch. Using the same amount of force he knelt by the blackened ground, and did the same thing. This time the Four Sword sunk almost to the hilt. "The ground is rotten." Vio said.

Blue made a face. "That's gross."

"But why?" Green asked. "How?"

Vio pulled out his sword and cleaned it very carefully. "Do you remember what Spirit said about 'his past'?" They both nodded. "I think this was what he was talking about before. About the evil sucking the life out of the world, killing it."

Green winced. "So… this has happened before?"

Blue knelt down next to him. "Or his memories are from the future."

"Its possible." Vio muttered. "I imagine The Three would show him whatever they thought would motivate him most."

Green looked around. "I think I'd go insane if this was all I remembered."

"I want to get his view on this…"

"Not until he's better. Seeing this in person will only make him more determined to move on." They all got up and headed back to camp. "We'll come back in a few days."

* * *

Short, but its filler, so… Comments make me happy!

Not that kind of like! He means normal 'friendship like'.

LoZ © Not me.


	21. Chapter 18

AN: We're getting close to the end now. Should be less then ten chapters.

* * *

It didn't show on his face, but Spirit was sickened. The blackened soil, the poison air, the overwhelming sense of death... It was his nightmares come to life and there was absolutely nothing he could do. The Goddesses were surely grieving over his failure.

"This is horrible." Red whispered.

"This is why we have to bring the light back." Spirit said, looking at Green, and holding out his hand. "This is why we shouldn't rest."

Vio looked out. 'It's gotten wider…' He thought. For every day that they had given Red and Spirit to recover the rot had spread another inch. "I wonder if there are my spots like this."

"There are many spots like this." Spirit answered. "There's too much darkness."

Shadow twitched. "Stop lumping us together! How could darkness do something like this!"

Spirit didn't spar him a glance as Green reluctantly handed him his sword. "We've all been to the Dark World Spirit, and there isn't anything like this there." He nodded at Shadow. "Either way…"

Shadow took the hint, and vanished into the Dark World. The sunlight came back at Spirits call, doing more for the light beings mental health then any amount of resting would. The ground, however, didn't change.

Red jumped forward and grabbed Spirits arm. "Can't you purify that too?"

"What is done is done." He answered. "I do not have he ability to bring back what has died. The earth will have to heal on its own." (1)

They were all silent for a moment, and then chased after Spirit when he walked off, leaving them behind.

…..

It had been raining for two days by the time they reached the next temple. "I hate water!" Blue exclaimed, barging through the double doors, and immediately stripping out of his tunic to ring it out. "I swear, if I could have one wish it would be that water didn't exist!"

Red hopped in after him, beaming like usual, the rain not dampening his spirit an ounce. "But Blue! The last time we were swimming you were enjoying it!"

The short-tempered boy glared. "Momentary insanity."

"Permanent insanity." Vio corrected, entering the room with Green and Spirit, Shadow entering last.

"Water is needed for all living things." Spirit pointed out. "If you wished for its destruction, we would all die."

Blue just looked annoyed, throwing his tunic down like he was sick of it.

The temple wasn't on the map; for all that it was huge. They wouldn't have even found it if Spirit hadn't lead them right into it. The entire thing was carved into the side of a mountain, made of all pure white walls that gave Shadow a headache. The first room that they had settled into was even larger then it looked outside, and the ground was covered in little gray flowers.

Red bounded through them, making sure not to stray to far from Spirits light. "Wow! This is such a pretty room!" He knelt down and inhaled their faint scent before laying down like a child for a nap.

"Here idiot! Don't go to sleep now!" Blue yelled through clenched teeth, shaking the boy with his foot.

Spirit looked at the ground, the flowers withered where he stepped. "This room is not pretty. It's covered in darkness."

Shadow looked up startled. "Darkness?"

Blue's knees buckled and he collapsed, falling to the ground and causing quite a few little gray petals to scatter.

Shadows eyes widened. "Don't breath in the pollen!" He exclaimed.

The warning was a little late. Green and Vio both covered their mouths, but only seconds before they too lost consciousness. Spirit managed to catch Green, and Shadow Vio.

"They're just sleeping." Shadow told him quickly, as they laid them on the ground.

Spirit looked up, not pleased that his only option was to converse with the shadow again. "Why?"

Shadow looked guilty. "I didn't even think about it, but I've know these flowers. There are a lot of them in the Dark World, and their pollen is a very potent sleeping drug. Shadow's quickly become immune to their effects growing up around so many, so they don't affect me. And you… are you, so I guess they don't effect you either."

"How do we wake them?"

Shadow picked up Vio, the sleeping male not so much as twitching. "We don't. We have to wait until their bodies fight off the pollen that they already inhaled. The best thing we can do for them, is move them to the next room so that they don't breath in any more."

The next room was very dimly lit. Shadow gritted his teeth, but the light was so muted that he could manage it. Not one of the four reacted as they were lifted and laid out in there.

"The real problem here is the side effects." Shadow muttered.

Spirit glared. "What side effect?"

"We call them Dream Eaters." He answered. "They make their victim experience these really horrible nightmares. Not so much… their worst fears or anything. Well, some times it's their worst fear, but usually they're just nightmares."

Spirit didn't respond for a moment, then: "How long should this take?"

"How should I know?" Shadow asked. "Two hours maybe? Probably less for them but…"

Spirit stood up and walked across the room, jumping onto a little platform that was rising and falling too and from the ceiling. "Then I am going ahead. I have to take care of the evil I feel."

Shadow twitched. 'At least he didn't say darkness.' When the platform came back down, Shadow got on and chased after him. "Hey! I'm going too!"

Spirit used the hookshot to reach a lever that opened the door. "I do not need your assistance." He answered, and then looked back. "However I suppose it would be unwise to leave the others completely at your mercy… you will come."

Shadow forced a grin, with a mocking bow. "Why thank you for your tolerance, you magnificent bastard." He came up with an annoyed look and crossed his arms. "How is it that you still don't trust me? Have I done anything to make you think that I am entrust worthy?"

Spirit didn't answer slipping through the doorway.

Shadow sighed, following him inside. The third room had a very large gap in the center. They could both see the bottom, and it wasn't like it was likely to harm them if they fell, but there didn't seem to be anyway across down there either. Or anyway back up.

Spirit fired his hookshot across the crater, but it came up short.

"Ho?" Shadow teased, stepping out onto the air, lazily strolling to the other side. "What is this? Could you be stuck?" He reached the other side, and leaned against the wall next to the lever that likely opened some method to cross. "Whatever are you going to do, Mr. 'Do not need assistance'?"

Spirit's eyes narrowed just noticeably. "If you _can_ assist me, you are welcome too."

"Try again. A little more politely."

"I will not ask a shadow for help."

Shadow took the lever and pushed it down. He wanted to ask if Spirit would still refuse if it were the only way to continue the mission. However he was pretty sure that damaging the boy's pride by making him ask something he hated for help, would not be a good way to gain his favor.

A bridge slowly unfolded from his side and stretched to the other. Spirit crossed, not sparing Shadow a glance.

"You could manage a 'thanks', ya'know!"

The temple slowly became darker as they continued. The lack of light didn't hinder either of them, although it clearly bothered Spirit, as it always did. Shadow spent a large amount of time attempting to draw the light being into a neutral conversation, but they all fell flat. After a while, he gave up, deciding to return the silent treatment instead. That lasted only until the first time they got stuck.

"Damn it~!" He whined, hoping to spur some reaction. "I can't find an exit."

It still didn't work, as Spirit simply stood in the middle of the underground cavern they had wandered into. The room was too large, and by all logic the ceiling should have collapsed in on itself due to the weight, but it hadn't. And had remained that way for probably hundreds of years.

Shadow could find the doorway in the Dark World with ease, but they were having a difficult time locating a way to open it. "Should we go back?" He asked bored. "The others might have woken up by now…"

The light being was very slowly scanning the room. With his strange eyes it looked like he was seeing into the very mechanics of the walls. Which, he was not. Shadow rolled his own eyes, and walked over to him, getting a little closer then normal, only because he was feeling a little daring.

However as he took the last steps he would risk, Spirits cold eyes turned to him, and he stepped back.

Shadow blinked, and stepped forward again. Spirit moved back two steps. "What are you doing?" He asked, the slightest hint of irritation in his voice.

Shadow started walking a little, Spirit matching his pace. Shadow grinned slyly. "Spirit? Why do you flee so? Hm? Are you afraid of me?" The prospect was oddly thrilling.

He jumped back with a yelp as Spirit drew his sword and slashed at about neck level, coming to a complete stop. "The only think I fear is failing my mission, and making The Three weep any more." Shadow avoided the glowing sword tip, as it was Spirit's turn to advance. "I do not fear you, creature of darkness."

Shadow scowled, his hands reaching for one of his bombs. "You don't do you? That isn't the wises choice-"

Spirit looked over his shoulder, distracted by something. "What is that?" He asked.

Shadow stopped, unable to believe the other was trying to use the oldest trick in the book against _him_. Actually, Shadow realized, that did sound too much like something he would do. The Threes little puppet probably couldn't even think of simple distraction tricks. He looked back over his shoulder to see a small scratch in the wall that he hadn't noticed.

"That…is important!" He answered, pulling out the bomb and tossing it behind him, instead of into the face of his almost-opponent. Honestly, why did the other irk him so much? Green and Vio were right. They couldn't be fighting each other, and they definitely couldn't be doing it in a temple they had yet to complete. There were important things on the line.

Spirit lowered his sword, both of them looking away as the bomb went off and they were covered in debris.

When they looked back they found a long lever. "There we go!" Shadow cheered, taking one end.

Spirit put away his sword and grabbed hold of the opposite end, and they pulled together. It clicked out easily.

Shadow grinned as the door opened. "Ta-da." Spirit hurried on without him. Shadow let out a frustrated sound. "Argh! Spirit! Why do you hate me? _What _did _I_ do to _you?_"

"There is nothing you did to me." Spirit answered. "You are darkness, darkness is evil, therefore you are something I must dispose of."

"But not all darkness is evil!" Shadow exclaimed following him into a rather metallic looking room. It had a platform in the middle that looked quite similar to the wind temple, with yet another fatal fall. "I mean, I know, darkness is usually associated with evil, but I'm not evil. If I was evil, don't you think that I would have killed you and the others by now? It's not as though I haven't had numerous opportunities."

Spirit didn't look at him as he started across the room. "I do not know what you are planning. I'm sure that you are just trying to gain their trust."

"I already have their trust."

"Then you will lose it when you betray them."

Shadow came to a stop. "I'm not going to betray them!"

Spirit didn't react to the temper spike. "It would not be the first time would it?" He asked. "Were you not planning to do the same thing to your previous master Ganon?"

Shadow felt like he'd swallowed a rock or something. "How… do you know about that?"

Spirit gave him a blank stare, and Shadow realized the look was probably disgust. "There are many things that I know about you. I have many memories; each one proving what I already know to be true."

Shadow looked away. The memories must have come from the time Vio had joined him. When he'd shown him the 'advantages' of belonging to that side. He had done some horrible things… "But… that was years ago!" He words echoed through the room. "I've changed. The others made me see that I was wrong!"

Spirit jumped across the space to the door. As he did, metal bars dropped down in front of it.

Shadow sighed. "Again? Can't these things ever just end quickly?" He asked, moments before he was sent flying forward by an invisible blow to his back. He landed with a thud and rolled instantly to his feet. "What the fuck was that?" He asked.

Spirit jumped back over, his sword at the ready. The both of them looked around, but the room appeared as vacant as it had been before. Shadow withdrew a small unlit bomb, and tossed it up readily.

"Well, that was a lit-!" He was knocked back again. "Fuck!"

Spirit looked over, before he was sent flying back as well. However, the moment whatever hit him, made contact, it let out a shriek-like groan as it became quite visible. It was some kind of shadow, but not anything they recognized. It was large, and humanoid, wielding a club, but if Shadow had to wager a guess, he would definitely say the thing was stupid. At least t wasn't an intelligent creature. It moved like some kind of strange wounded animal.

They both got back up as the thing vanished from view. This time, Shadow let his eyes waver between the barrier of their worlds, so he could see into the Dark World as well.

"What was that?" Spirit asked, not wanting to move any closer to the thing, but not wanting to remain as close to the edge of the field.

"I'm… not entirely sure." Shadow answered, having never seen anything quite like it. However he did recognize the ambush technique. He and Vaati had used it often on the unexpecting Heroes. It was an area where the barrier between their worlds was thin, and made it possible for those in the Dark World to attack with ease, while the light world beings floundered around confused.

It wasn't something that had succeeded long, and Shadow was a little surprise. He'd thought that Malachi had learned from their attempts, but here he was, using one of Shadow's own tricks against them. He slipped into the Dark World physically, and approached the creature.

Whatever it was had been concentrating on Spirit with a cautious look, probably thinking it was a bad idea to attack the strange being again. When it noticed Shadow approaching, it changed its target. Shadow lunged to the side when the creature lunged at him. "Whoa!" It was fast. Way faster then he thought.

He dropped bombs at its feet and chased it with his sword; but the bombs had no effect and he just wasn't fast enough. Shadow hovered just out of reach of the thing that seemed not to have that ability. "Hmmm… I don't have any idea what to do."

"Shadow, what are you doing?" Spirit asked annoyed.

"Looking for a weakness." He answered, observing the light being that couldn't see him. 'If only I could get him over here.' However he didn't have a moon purple, or Vaati's body snatching ability. Plus he wasn't sure Spirit would survive in his world. Or maybe he would simply rip the dimension in two. 'Then again, that thing came to the light world when it attacked him right?' He dropped down as close to Spirit as he would risk and became visible. "You're going to have to listen to my instructions now."

The creature snarled at him, and lunged closer now that he was in range, forgetting about its earlier encounter with Spirit.

"In front of you, and a little to the right…" He whispered, and jumped back when the thing got to close. "Swing now!"

Spirit obeyed, purely on instinct. As expected, the light sword ripped the thing right into that world and tore through it. The creature reared back with a shriek, but Spirit kept coming until the thing bolted across the room and vanished again.

"Where is it?" Spirit asked quickly. He would forget his prejudice for the moment, and rely on Shadow. It wasn't as though he had a choice.

Shadow smirked. "Looks like we have to work together here."

Spirit readied his stance again. "I do not find this amusing. This is only for the sake of Hyrule."

"Yeah, yeah." Shadow said, grinning like mad. That temple was a victory for him. He'd forced the Light beings cooperation. "Give me a minute." He ran around, scattering bombs at the creature's feet, distracting it until it was chasing him again. "To your left~!" He yelled, running around to Spirit's right.

Spirit swung, hitting the thing. He attacked as fast as he could, but the creature was faster and fled still.

'If only I could get it to slow down.' Shadow thought, stabbing it in its side. The creature roared, and he wasn't fast enough to avoid the club that suddenly cracked into him and sent him flying across the room.

Spirit turned as Shadow landed near the edge. Shadow sat up, and gripped his side. "Goddess Shame that hurt…!" His eyes flicked up, just in time to see something he really wasn't expecting. The thing had decided it had had enough of their tactic and was running straight for Spirit. He panicked. "Look out!"

The warning came too late as well. The weapon smacked into him. The light sword clamored to the floor as Spirit went right past Shadow, and slipped off the edge. Shadow lunged and grabbed his hand as the other feel limply. The fall jerked against his shoulder and his already bruising side collided with the ground.

"Damn it!" He swore, though grit teeth, trying to pull him up. He didn't have that good of a grip in the first place, and he couldn't believe that he was still managing to hold on. His normal shadow abilities had stopped working the second he had touched the boy. "Spirit!"

Spirit snapped out of the daze the blow had left him in and looked up, grabbing Shadow's wrist. "Above you."

Shadow looked over his shoulder at the pseudo-shadow above them, club raised to crush them.

His blood boiled. He was in pain and in danger, and the stupid thing would not leave them alone! "_**Would you just die already**_!" He yelled, the energy exploding from him, knocking it back.

Spirit shuddered as the dark energy passed through him harmlessly.

Shadow felt his body slum, and almost lost his grip. "Ugh…" He muttered, pulling Spirit up with the boy's assistance. "The was nothing like the first time…" In addition, he was surprised he had managed to do it in the first place.

Spirit was on his feet the second he could be, but Shadow rolled onto his back. "Oooowww…" He complained. "Screw this. I hate temples."

Spirit looked at him for a moment, but not really looking away from their opponent, who had forsaken returning to the Dark World. "You did not have to save me." He said.

Shadow closed his eyes. "Are you telling me you'd rather have me let you fall next time?"

"I am saying that the others would not have blamed you, if you had failed to saved me."

Shadow sat up. "I told ya, I'm not trying to get rid of you. Besides, _I_ would have blamed myself if you'd fallen."

He didn't respond. The creature attacked again, but as it had dismissed its invisibility, it was child's play for Spirit to slip underneath the weapon and stab the thing. Having already been hit too many times, it screamed out and vanished in a cloud of darkness.

"Well that was a lot of fun wasn't it?" Shadow said in a light tone, standing up a (little slowly), and catching the key that fell from the dark ceiling. He then yelped and dropped it. "Fuck!"

Spirit looked over. "Are you injured?"

"After that battle?" Shadow asked sarcastically. "Naw, 'course not."

"I meant, when did you injure your hand?" he asked picking up the key and noticing Shadow back away.

"Who knows." He answered.

Spirit's jaw tightened. "Show me."

"No." He answered, sticking out his tongue.

"Why are you hiding it?"

"I'm not!" He argued. "Why do you want to see it?"

Spirit didn't answer, because he wasn't exactly sure. Instead he rounded the boy, who had turned his injured side away from him and grabbed his elbow. Shadow hissed as his arm was turned to reveal the rather nasty burns that covered hand, fingers and wrist. The cloth that normally covered his wrist had burned away as well. As Spirit watched, the area when his hand held began to burn away, and he let go. Shadow jumped away, floating in the air so that he wouldn't be able to catch him off guard again.

"Jeez, you sadist! Happy now?"

Spirit didn't move. "I caused that injury…?"

Shadow frowned. The other was going to take that as more proof of his superiority. Smug ass light bastard. "Aren't you pleased with yourself? You hurt the evil shadow. Congrats."

Spirit glared slightly. "Did you know that was going to happen?"

"How the hell would I know that was going to happen?" He snapped, then shrugged. "Actually, I figured that if you touched me, it would kill me. Like any other direct sunlight. My body must be more solid then I thought it was. Or you aren't as shinny as you think you are." He stuck out his tongue.

Spirit turned and went to the door. "We don't have time for you to go back and get anything for it. If you want to treat it, you'll have to wait."

Shadow twitched. "Yeah, yeah, the mission comes first." 'Jerk.' He followed him to the next room which was filled with levers and moving platforms but at the top was their destination. The Boss room.

* * *

Shadows getting a little fed up with Spirit. Heeheehee… There is a chapter about the Links flower-induced nightmares, but since they don't relate to the story, I'm going to add them later after the story as an addition chapter.

(1) If this were a game, you would have found these wa~y earlier, and would be able to purify them, and you would have to do it before the poisen got to you, then Piz would recognize it as a warping point. But for the story, this way worked better.

Comment plz!

LoZ © Not me.


	22. Chapter 18:5

AN: Another yaoi chapter! You know the drill! This chapter is a little dark with pseudo-character death, because I really wanted to focus on the flower dreams.

**WARNING! Psudo-Character death and violence. **I don't know if it needs to be, it just seems a little darker then my usual. Be warned.

* * *

Green threw himself behind a tree to avoid the blast. "Damn!" He said, slamming his fist into the bark. "Damn it!"

They had lost.

The world was dieing and they had lost the final battle. All around him he could see patches of death rotting the earth away, just like Spirit had warned. The smell of death filled the air and it was spreading so fast, he could see it. Hyrule was finished.

A blast went off near him and he ran. The four sword had been destroyed and its wielders returned to one. Shadow was chained to the Dark World and Spirit had vanished upon their failure. He was the only think left to eradicate and Malachi was just playing with him!

"**Run, little Hero Green."** Come a poisonous whisper in his ear. **"Hyrule is mine; the World is mine. There is nothing you can do. Run!"**

Green grabbed a branch and swung near his head. "Leave me alone!" He telled, running with all his might. 'And it's not Green.' He thought with a pang in his chest. 'It's Link. We're one again…'

The voice laughed. **"Are you certain? Do you still **_**feel**_** them?"**

Green swung again, his breath coming out hard. "Of course! They are-!" He stopped. 'They'? He'd never referred to them as 'them' when they were together. It was always 'I did' and 'I was'…

Why did he still feel like Green?

The voice laughed again loudly, disappearing from his head. He ran. Why was he Green!? Normally he would be thrilled to know he could still rely on the aid of his companions. But if they weren't safely inside him, then where were they!?

"**WHERE DO YOU THINK, LITTLE HERO!?" **The voice called out from the sky, as fearful shudders racked Green's body and he fell.

"No! We were separated!" That was all; they could find each other again! Maybe there would even be another chance! He just had to find them or keep the enemy busy long enough for them to find him! Then they could save Shadow and bring Spirit back. Hyrule still had a chance! They could-!

The voice laughed again and Green covered his ears in an attempt to block it out. Tears streamed down his face. He bolted out of the forest only to skitter to a halt, almost stumbling over the edge of a cliff.

He spun around with only the stick for protection. He had nowhere to go! Back tracking would only lead him into the hands of his enemy and even he couldn't survive that fall.

"Malachi!" He screamed. "Come out and fight me!"

"**ARE YOU AFRAID HERO?"**

Green tensed before the voice whispered again.

"**Are you afraid of dying all alone?"**

Another blast caught him off guard and knocked him off the cliff.

…

"Green! Vio!" The two names echoed into the darkness as Red pushed himself to go as fast as he could. His feet pounded against the ground but he felt like he wasn't getting anywhere. Each step was strained, like he was running through water. He had to force his legs down with all his might. He felt exhausted and knew he would never be able to defend himself if something decided to attack him.

Not that it mattered.

"Shadow!" He yelled, his lungs acing from use, but without really hurting. His throat was on fire. "Spirit!"

Deep down he knew there was no point in calling or running or anything. The others were gone and he was alone. Hyrule, Malachi, good, evil… all gone. Even The Three were no longer there to watch over him. Everything was gone.

He stopped as he felt something in front of him. It was huge. Hesitantly, he slowed until he was right before him and reached out to touch it. It was a wall. An unexpected laugh escaped him.

He'd thought he was alone in that dark little world. A wall meant hope. He kept a hand along it and ran. With in a few moments he found an inside corner and ran along that wall instead. When he came to the third wall his heart leapt into his throat.

But he had been running that whole time.

There couldn't be a wall there.

He bolted along the third and found a forth that reached to the other end with no spaces. His hope shriveled up. "No!" He screamed, slamming his fists against it. "This doesn't make any since! No!" How could he be trapped after all that time? "Please! Someone!"

He tried again, but each time he reached a corner the distance between them had gotten shorter, until finally he could reach them all from standing in one spot. He rammed his shoulder against the sides again and again, hoping they might give. Then he braced himself against two sides and tried to climb up but he was met with a ceiling overhead, just out of arms reach.

"No…" he whispered, as his world was reduced to a dark square of space and he curled into a corner. "Please… Blue…" He tried to hold back the tears. "Someone help me…"

…

The weapon came down hard and Blue just managed to par it. His sword felt like lead. He had no idea what was going on, but he was in a very large white space fighting some type of monster. His opponent was some Darknut rip-off, but slower, which was a blessing.

Normally such a fight would be quick, over almost before it started. But Blue could barely move. He couldn't jump or run, he could barely move his arms. It was difficult, and he was just glad he could still fight.

The battle continued in slow motion. The monster taking its time; Blue struggling to past his new inability. He hated being restricted. He hated not being able to reach his full strength. It left him vulnerable and put his companions in danger.

As he thought that a new blade ripped thought the monster. It vanished to reveal Green behind it, grinning smugly. "Slow poke! Hurry up already."

As annoyed as he was about that comment, Blue was rather relieved for the break. He grinned back. _'Green you ass-'_ His mouth moved but nothing came out. _'I-! I can't talk!'_

Greens expression changed to one of concern. "Blue?" He stepped forward.

Blue saw it before he did. Another monster. He tried to yell a warning, but there was no sound to leave his throat. He pointed, unable to run, but Green didn't understand and stared at him.

The black think grabbed Green by his throat lifting him into the air. Blue tried to yell, unable to run to him. Green clawed at the hand, choking out a single cry for help, before his body gave a jerk and he fell limp. The creature dropped him to a crumpled heap on the ground.

'_Green!'_ Blue rolled him over when he reached the heroes side. Green didn't move. He didn't breath. There was no pulse and his body was ice cold. _'No! You can't die! Wake up!'_ Tears prickled his eyes. It was his fault. He'd been distracting him. _'No…!'_

He didn't have time to mourn properly before he was running. It didn't feel like he was running, but at least he was. The creature had disappeared and the white room had developed some trees and scattered grass.

The others were in danger! He didn't know how he knew it, but he felt it. They were in trouble and if he could just make it to them in time-!

He ran straight, having no idea where they were, until he came to a long dry path on the ground. Spirit stood there, waiting.

"Where is Green?" he asked.

Blue didn't have time to answer before another creature appeared before him. They both reached for their swords, but to no avail. Four powerful claws sliced through Spirit's body and there was no room to doubt that he was dead.

Blue screamed silently, almost falling. But he couldn't. He still had to find the others.

He didn't make it in time to even see Vio and Shadows downfall. He found them, wrapped protectively in each other's arms, arrows protruding from their bodies.

'_NO!'_

Red's voice filled the air and then he would see him. A few yards away, fighting something huge with a sword. He fought as hard as he could, but Blue could see he had been slowed just like Blue had been before.

Blue ran forward, praying he reached him in time. _'Red damn it! Don't stop fighting! Don't you dare stop fighting!'_

Time slowed again. The small blond struggled to par a blow, just as his eyes caught Blue's. His grip relaxed immediately as he smiled warmly. "Blue!"

'_Don't take your eyes off the fight!'_He tried to yell, but it was no use.

The monster crouched and thrust its sword past Red's guard and into his body.

'_RED!'_

The smallest Link looked confused and surprised, as he took in the sight of the weapon covered in his blood. Then he fell.

'_No, no, no, no….!'_ He grabbed the boy and pulled him into his arms. _'Red! Wake up! Please wake up!' _

Those blue eyes hadn't closed, but they were empty and lifeless. Blue brushed the boys hair out of the way still trying to wake him. He didn't move. Blood soaked them both but Blue barely noticed. _'Red… you've got to wake up…'_ he pulled the boy closer and sobbed into his shoulder. _'I couldn't save them… I couldn't save anyone!' _

…

"Vio!"

Vio opened his eyes. Someone was calling to him. But he felt so tired. It wasn't time to get up. He had to be the most tired he'd ever been and his body felt heavy as led.

But he felt himself sit up. He didn't care. He wanted to go back to sleep, but his body seemed to have other plans. He felt too sluggish to try and change the course he was going.

"Vio! Come on!"

'I'm coming!" He called back, without meaning too.

He looked over. He could see the others. Red was smiling and waving at him. Green, Blue and Spirit were beside him. He wondered why they were all the way over there. If they wanted him, they should come to him! …He was too tired… However his thoughts took a backseat as he stood up and approached.

It was a long walk, but it went by so unevenly. At first he seemed to be getting closer, then it didn't seem like he was moving at all. It left plenty of time to wonder in his exhaustion: What was going on? Why had they left him back there alone? Where were they? Where was Shadow?

"Hurry, hurry!" Red called impatiently.

"We're going home!" Blue called, as though that made any sense.

"And we're going to have a feast!" Green said laughing.

What were they going on about? Their mission wasn't over. They couldn't go home yet. He was so tired… maybe he missed it. Somehow he'd managed to sleep through the final battle.

When he was a few yards away he stopped, indicating they should finish the journey. Red giggled and ran up. Blue broke into a run to catch him and grab him around the waist, holding him tightly. Red laughed, before pulling free and latching onto his arm. For once Blue didn't seem to mind and actually smiled instead. Green and Spirit were slower, but didn't take long. They were already holding hands.

When had this happened?

The two couples reminded him of puppies, eagerly wagging their tails at him. He smiled, reaching out and ruffling Reds hair, much to Blues look of annoyance. But they all smiled back, closing their eyes excitedly.

"We're going back, Vio!"

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. He could feel it. Something bad was about to happen. He wanted to look around and warn them! But he was so tired… he didn't know where he even got the energy to simply draw his sword.

The sword was heavy, but he held it firmly, waiting for them to open their eyes and see him. Once they saw the concern, they would be able to fight where he could not.

The feeling of danger grew and he smirked.

Then with one swing, he slaughtered all four of them at once.

The four of them felt to the ground as Vio stood there with his sword pointing to the side. Their bodies covered in blood, their blood, the same blood that dripped from his blade.

A sick feeling of shock grabbed him and had he been in control, the most Vio would have done was drop his weapon and stare, unable to comprehend it.

Then he would have stumbled back and fallen to the ground in tears. He would have screamed 'what have I done' and 'how could I-?' Every fiber of his being wanted to scream and cry and look away.

But he wasn't in control, he realized. And all he did was smile amused as he watched the pool of blood widen around his friends.

He barely noticed as his body started walking again. The image of his friends dead on the ground from his sword was burned into his mind. He couldn't work up the energy to even try to fight. He was completely drained.

"Vio!"

He turned around and saw Shadow running towards him. He felt horrible and watched to reach for him. _'Shadow…'_ He thought. _'I killed them… I killed all of them. Something's wrong with me…!'_

"Vio? Where are you going?"

When he reached him, Vio felt himself smirk, the sickening feeling of danger filled him again.

'_No! Shadow! Stay away from me!'_ Panic filled him but not adrenaline. He fought desperately against himself, but without energy it was useless. His body moved against him. _'I wont hurt him! I can't! Stop!'_

"Vio?" Shadow asked, stopping in front of him.

Vio smirked wider and held out his hand, without a sign of Vio's struggle. Shadow laughed, moving trusting into his hand. Vio pulled him close, gently touching their lips together. It hurt so much, Vio thought he might die from the horror of what was happening. He wanted to cry in agony as he lifted his still blooded sword and sank it into his love.

Shadow let out the softest little sound and pulled away, his eyes filled with pain. "Vio…?" He asked, before he too, fell to the ground.

'_Shadow! SHADOW!' _ He thought, as he started to laugh.

* * *

God! This must be the chapter that I have most been looking forward to writing! Now, those weren't exactly their worst fears. They were just dreams designed to induce a lot of fear.

Tell me what you think? Did anyone get upset?

Comment!

LoZ © Not me!


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